Qe:oT-^eFv-©4^ ■oV.^K 



MR. HOUGHTON'S ADDRESS. 









.H8 



7 



Office of the Secretary of the Senate, ^ 
Montpelier, Vt., Oct. 23, 1848. S 

Dear Sir : — By a Joint Resolution of the two Houses, this day adopted, we 
are directed to request you to furnish us with a copy for publication, of " the 
able and interesting Address prepared hy you for delivery at the Annual 
Meeting of the Vermont Historical and Antiquarian Society,'' and, in compli- 
ance with a previous Joint Resolution, pronounced before the Members of the 
Legislature in the Representatives' Hall on Friday evening, the 20th inst. 

Trusting that you will find no objection to the course indicated by the Reso- 
lotion alluded to. 

We are very respectfully. Your ob't serv't.s, 

-D. W. C. CLARKE, Secretary of the Senate, 
F. F. MERRILL, C;ierlv of the House of Representatives. 
George F. Houghtoi"?, Esq. 
Montpelier, Vt. 



MoNTFEi.iER, Vt., 24!h October, 1848. 
Gentlemen : 

I hasten to acknowledge the receipt of your complimentary joint-letter 
of yesterday's date requesting for the press, on behalf of the two Houses of the 
General Assembly, a copy of the Address pronounced hy me before the Mem- 
bers of the Legislature, at their request, on the evening of the 20th inst. 

The addrcs was |)repared for delivery before the " V^ermont Historical and 
Antiquarian Society," and with no idea that, under any combination of circum- 
stances, would its publication be invited. 

If it be thought, however, that any beneficial influence can be anticipated 
from its publication, it is cheerfully placed at your disposal. 

I am, Gentlemen, Very respectfully. 
Your obedient servant. 

GEORGE F. HOUGHTON. 
Messrs. D. W. C. Clarke, Secretary of the Senate, 

F. F. Merrill, Clerk of the House of Repiesentativcs, 



ADDRESS. 



Mr. President, Gentlebien of the Senate and House of 
Representatives : 

It is proper to state to the dignified bodies, in compliance 
with whose invitation I have the unexpected honor to appear in 
this Hall, that the address, which I am about to pronounce, was 
prepared for delivery before " The Vermont Historical and An- 
tiquarian Society." 

The main features of my address, I trust, are in keeping with 
the train of thought naturally suggested by the presence of the 
memorials of the gallant bravery of our forefathers. This cir- 
cumstance has, undoubtedly, prompted an act of courtesy, which 
transfers me from the customary scene of historical discourses to 
this Hall of Legislation. 

This announcement may possibly prevent the statement of facts 
and comments thereon, in which I shall indulge, from being regard- 
ed as ill-suited to the proprieties of the occasion which has assem- 
bled us together this evening. 

The spirit, embodied in the act by which tlie "Vermont Histori- 
cal and Antiquarian Society" was incorporated, has its birth in that 
curiosity, which prompts to an inquiry into the lives and adven- 
tures of their ancestry. Rlen of leisure, pleased with the recrea- 
tion which such investigations afford, gladly push their researches 
beyond the period in which written memorials are preserved, and 
carefully scrutinize the authenticity of such events as are en- 
trusted to memory or oral tradition. If it be true that the new 
world cannot, of necessity, yield scope so ample for antiquarian 
research as the old world with its immemorial systems and time- 
honored institutions, yet archeological enthusiasts in our midst can 
be profitably_jbusied in seeking among the vestiges of the past for 
those truths, which it is the peculiar province of history to exhibit 
and illustrate. In this way, x\ntiquarianism must be recognized 



v^ 



44' MR. Houghton's address. 

as a science and, being allied to History, it will be a safe indica- 
tor of an advanced stage of intellectual refinement. Isolated facts, 
when brought forth in the disjointed and piece-meal forms in which 
they are often, not to say always, found, demand profound study 
to test their importance and careful collation to prove their accu- 
racy. Through such an intellectual ordeal must all facts be 
passed before they can be available as real and practical histo- 
ry. To this audience, 1 need not remark, that to foster this gen- 
uine spirit of antiquarian and historical research, which requires 
for its nutriment and healthful growth, liberty of thought, the 
exercise of critical discussion and accurate observation, is the 
especial mission of the Society to which I have alluded. 

The utUity of a public institution, formed for the express pur- 
pose of exploring, collecting and preserving valuable materials 
relating to the early settlements of the State, cannot reasonably be 
debated. The importance of such an association, furnishing as it 
must, a safe repository for the discoveries which, from time to 
time, gladden the hearts of those scientific and inquisitive men 
who gird on the antiquarian's armor, has been tested by the ex- 
perience of the Old World and the New. 

The materials requisite for the reliable history of a country are 
not always accessible to the anxious student. Cumbrous piles of 
moth-eaten documents that lumber oflices of record, rare publica- 
tions of an early date, which are only known to the pains-taking 
and never-tiring inquirer, are every-day impediments in the path 
of historical research. These obstacles, it must be remembered, 
are insurmountable to those who have not pecuniary means much 
more liberal than students, in general, can command. The con- 
clusion seems unavoidable, then, that comUned efforts, on the part 
of those who either assume a personal interest in such inquiries or 
are disposed to facilitate the labors of others for the public good, 
are indispensable. 

I am not addressing, as I intended to do, an Association engaged 
in a literary enterprise and aiming at the collection as well as the 
diffusion of historical knowledge, but yet I presume that I shall 
win universal acquiescence to the proposition that there can be no 
limits to the advantages which will flow from such literary com- 
binations. Every state in the American Union, with a rare ex- 



LIFE OF SETH WARNER. 45 

ception, can boast of a flourishing Historical Society. This en- 
couraging fact ought to excite less surprise in our minds than tlie 
mortifying truth that ten years have not elapsed since the "Vermont 
Historical and Antiquarian Society" has won for itself a " local 
habitation and a name." 

The "Vermont Historical and Antiquarian Society" owes its 
birth to the persuasion tliat associations are more promotive of 
science and literature than individual effort. If, at this late liour, 
it be asked what are tlie intended objects of such a society, the 
answer could be given in the words of Sir William Jones, who 
addressed the members of the Asiatic Society in Calcutta in 1784. 
''The objects of this Association," said he, ''are Man and Na- 
ture — whatever is or has been performed by the one or produced 
by the other. Human knowledge has been elegantly analyzed 
according to the three great faculties of the mind, Memory, Rea- 
son and Imagination, which we constantly find employed in ar- 
ranging and retaining, comparing and distinguishing, combining 
and diversifying the ideas which we receive through our senses or 
acquire by reflection : hence the three main branches of learning 
are History, Science and the Arts." 

My appearance upon this occasion, more accustomed as I am to 
professional study than historical reading, must be regarded as an 
expression of my interest in tliis literary institution. I look upon 
its establishment as a promise and a means of increased intellectual 
activity in departments of knowledge too often underrated and neg- 
lected. It was not consonant, therefore, to my feelings to refuse 
to say a cheering word or to exert a friendly effort on its behalf. 

To select from the great multiplicity of themes one becoming 
the present anniversary, has not been without its difficulties. — 
With some misgivings, however, as to my ability to do justice to 
my subject, I propose to invite your attention to a brief recital of 
the Life and Services of Col. Seth Warner, intending incidentally 
to illustrate, in connection therewith, some of the characteristics of 
the early settlers of Vermont, who took active parts in that period 
of its history commonly known as the ' Controversy of the New 
Hampshire Grants.^ 

Every historical era has peculiarities to distinguish it from other 
times, and every man, who has been largely endowed by Nature 



46 MR. Houghton's address. 

with gifts to render signal service to his country in times of peril, 
must, of necessity, be distinguished from his fellow men. Any 
apology for examining into those gifts and characteristics would 
be superfluous. From such an examination, conducted without 
prepossession or prejudice, we are enabled to determine the idea 
that was uppermost in the public mind when those gifts and char- 
acteristics were forced into active requisition. I adhere to the 
doctrine, to which Time has affixed his imprimatur, that the sen- 
timents which lie deepest in the heart, or the controlling opinions 
which sway the mind, of a people will surely betray themselves in 
their public deeds and words. In other language,^the national idea 
must sooner or later find utterance in the Acts of a nation — must 
find a voice in its Literature and impress itself upon its Laws ! 

Prior to the first civilized establishment within the present lim- 
its of this State, the whole of the territory, now known as Ver- 
mont, had been in the undisputed possession of the red man. Here 
the Iroquois, the Coosucks, a branch of the St. Francis tribe of 
Indians, pursued the pleaures of the chase. They regarded the 
country as more suitable for a hunting ground than for a perma- 
nent residence. Before the erection of Fort Dummer, in the 
township of Brattleboro', no settlement had been effected by the 
white man. Vermont seemed to be, during the Colonial and In- 
dian wars, a debateable ground on which many a guerilla battle 
was fought. Situated, as it was, equi-distant from the Franco-Ca- 
nadians, with their savage colleagues on the one hand, and the 
Anglo-Americans, on the other, it was constantly exposed to the 
incursions and depredations of both. The dense forests of the 
Green Mountains became the favorite lurking places of the wield- 
ers of the tomahawk, and resounded with the war-whoop of those 
savages who were willing to be allies for either of the contending 
parties. For these reasons, actual settlements were impracticable 
and perilous ; and it was not until the year 1760 that civilized 
establishments were found upon the banks of the River Connecti- 
cut. The scantiness of the population cannot be attributed to any 
other cause than the local situation of Vermont with respect to the 
various Indian nations which prevented its becoming a permanent 
residence for the red man, in earlier times, and afterwards pre- 
vented its being settled by the French and English during the Co- 
lonial Wars. 



LIFE OF SETH WARNER. 47 

The fertility and value of tlie lands lying between the present 
geographic limits of Vermont, however, had become widely known. 
During the French war, a road had been opened by the New Eng- 
land troops from Charlestown in New Hampshire, to Crovv'n Point 
in New York, and, by passing frequently through these lands, 
their character had been, of course, determined. When the final 
conquest of Canada had removed one of the dangerous obstacles 
in the way of settling in this part of New England, these lands 
were eagerly sought for by those who wished to ov^n the land they 
cultivated and to cultivate the lands they owned. 

Land-titles, at that date, Avere granted under Letters Patent 
from the Crown by Benning Wentworth, the then Captain Gen- 
eral, Governor and Commander in Chief of His Majesty's Prov- 
ince of New Hampsliire. That Province claimed and exercised 
jurisdiction over territory extending from the West bank of the 
Connecticut River to a point esteemed to be twenty miles East of 
the river Hudson, so far as that river extended to the Northward, 
and after that, as far Westward as Lake Champlain. By the year 
1761, no less than 60 townships were granted on the West side of 
the Connecticut River, and within a year or two from that date, 
the whole number of grants had amounted to one hundred and 
thirty-eight. ■'•' 

Upon the fees and other emoluments which Gov. Wentworth 
received as compensation for those grants, the Government of 
New York looked with an envious eye. Inasmuch as the Gov- 
ernor of New Hampshire reserved five hundred acres of land in 
every township for himself, he was evidently laying the basis of 
an immense fortune. Wishing to thwart all such covetous pro- 
cedure, and desirous of the profit arising from the sale of those 
lands, Cadwallader Colben, Esq., Lieut. Governor of His Maj- 
esty's Province of New York, on the 28th December, 1763, issued 
a proclamation, " commanding the SherifTof the County of Albany 
to make a return of the names of all persons who have taken 
possession of lands under New Hampshire grants," and claiming 
jurisdiction as far East as Connecticut River, by virtue of 
grants made by Charles IL to the Duke of York in 1664 and 
1674. 

*3ee appendix. 



48 MR. Houghton's address. 

At this period of time, came from tlie Colony of Old Connecti- 
cut, from the town of Woodbury, in the County of Litchfield, the 
young Pioneer who was destined to take a prominent part in the 
various controversies and struggles which were incident to the 
early settlement of a new State. The parents of this Pioneer had 
purchased a tract of land in the township of Bennington, and, 
about the year 1763, had removed with their family to that town. 
He was distinguished in his youth, as he was afterwards in his 
manhood, for the " solidity and extent of his understanding." — 
With no other scholastic advantages than such as a common school, 
education afforded, yet those advantages w^ere employed to the best 
possible purpose ; and, at his majority, he was possessed of a fund 
of knowledge, which was as serviceable as if it had been obtained 
in the classic walks of Harvard, or under the elms of Yale. 

Coming to the State of Vermont, as Seth Warner did, while 
the soil was yet but poorly tilled, while the forests were unclear- 
ed, while no school-house or church had been erected, there was, 
it would seem to us, but little to encourage the mind of that Con- 
necticut boy to become a resident among the Green Mountains. 
But the rivers, lakes and ponds were filled with large quantities of 
excellent fish. The forests abounded with every variety of game, 
and in the dells and on the hills could be seen flowers of rare 
excellence and beauty. " Solomon in all his glory was never ar- 
rayed like one of these." Young Warner was a skillful botanist. 
He sought, partly from necessity and chiefly from choice, to ren- 
der himself familiar with such plants and roots as were indigenous 
to Vermont. We are assured that no man acquired more informa- 
tion touching the nature and properties of such natural productions 
than he. With such invaluable knowledge he was exceedingly 
useful in new settlements, where he could administer relief when 
medical assistance could not easily be obtained. 

Young Warner was a huntsman too. The ready pen of that 
romance-writer, who cordially sympathizes with every effort to 
learn the character of the early settlers of this State, represents 
him under the character of Col. Warrington as a successful 
lover of the pleasures of the chase. Traveling back eighty years, 
if we wish to see him as he was, we find him an inhabitant of one 
of the rude cabins that were thinly scattered through the wilder- 
ness. We observe him felling the forest, or tilling the soil which 



LIFE OF SSTH \V.4RNER. 11 

had never been touched by any hand before. There will be found 
around his shieling, unbroken silence, save when the stroke of his 
axe awakens the echo, or the howl of the wolf disturbs the dull 
ear of midnight. In the midst of all his labors, as well as his 
pastime, he is compelled to be ready with the loaded musket to 
repel the lurking savage. "You see a man of a very fine, and even 
majestic, appearance. Though tall and muscular, so compactly 
and finely set are his limbs that his contour presented nothing to 
the eye in the least disproportioned or ungainly. His features 
seem to correspond in regularity of formation to the rest of his 
person, while his countenance is rather of the cool and deliberate 
cast, indicative, however, of a mild, benevolent, disposition, as well 
as a sound, and reflecting intellect. Every development, indeed, 
whether of his shapely head or manly countenance, goes to show 
a strong, well-balanced character, and one capable of action be- 
yond the scope of ordinary men.'""* 

It is said b^^ cotemporarics who liave seen him at the head of 
his brave " Green Mountain Rangers," armed and equipped for 
duty, that no man could bestride a horse with more grace and dig- 
nity than lie. With a broad and intellectual forehead, relieved 
with a profusion of nut-brown hair, and with sparkling blue eyes 
beaming forth under eye-brows most beautifully arched, his physi- 
ognomy gave unmistakeable signs of an intelligent, courageous 
and energetic man. 

Such was the skillful huntsman and the practical botanist, before 
the blast of War blew in the ears of the early settlers of the New 
Hampshire Grants. Continuing to use his quick eye-sight and 
steady arm in hunting after gume in the forests, and indulging his 
scientific taste in the dells and dingles where medicinal plants were 
most abundant, he became widely known as one upon whose use- 
fulness and humanity, reliance could be reposed. And thus was 
laid the basis of that reputation which, in aftertimes, rendered him 
so influential and powerful for good when " the slings and arrows 
of outrageous Fortune" were hurtled at those who, like himself, 
had pitched their tents among the green hills of Vermont. Hero, 
among the mountains and valleys of the so called " Switzerland of 

*See the '' Green Mountain Boys," page 18. 



12 MR. Houghton's address. 

America,." the love of Nature shone in his soul, as undying lustre 
glistens in the diamonds which sparkle in the diadem of Beauty ! 
Here, in the valleys of Vermont, through which messages are now 
sent by the aid of a power which outstrips even the sun in it& 
flight, and here, among the mountains, where the iron-horse now 
puffs its way, vvith untold wealth following reluctantly in its wake, 
once lived and loved that man whose heart overflowed with the 
love of Freedom for which all huntsmen are proverbial, and whose 
soul was fired with that enthusiasm which burns brightly and glo- 
riously in the breast of every devotee of Natural History. Truly 
this Vermont was a fit place to nurture such qualities of the head 
and heart. 

" Hail, land of Green Mountains ! whose valleys and streams 
Are as fair as the muse ever pictured in dreams ; 
Where the stranger oit sighs with emotion sincere, — 
Ah ! would that my own native home had been here !" 

" Hail, land ot the lovely, the equal, the brave. 
Never trod by the toe, never tilled by the slave ; 
Where the love of the world to the hamlet is brouoht, 
And speech is as free as the pinions of thought." 

The controversy between the Governors of New York and New 
Hampshire, relative to jurisdiction over the territory now constitut- 
ing the State of Vermont, was, meanwhile, in no wise abated. — 
That there was an acrimonious spirit gradually growing up be- 
tween the two Colonies, the following extract from Gov. Went- 
worth's Proclamation will demonstrate : 

" For political reasons, the claims to jurisdiction by New York migiit have beeia 
deferred, as well as the strict inquisition on the civil power to exercise jurisdiction 
in their respective functions as far as the Eastern banks of Connecticut River. — 

* * * To the end, therefore, that the grantees now settled and settling on 
those lands under His late and present Majesty's charters may not be intimidated, 
or any way hindered or obstructed in the improvement of the lands so granted, as 
well as to ascertain the right and maintain the jurisdiction of His Majesty's govern- 
ment of New Hampshire as far Westward as to include the grants made : 

I have thought fit, by and with the advice of His Majesty's Council to issue this 
Proclamation, hereby encouraging the several grantees, claiming under this Gov- 
ernment, to be industrious in clearing and cultivating their lands agreeably to their 
respective grants. 

And I do hereby require and command all civil officers within the Province, of 
what quality soever, as well those that are not, as those that are inhabitants on the 
said lands, to continue and be diligent in exercising jurisdiction in their respective 
offices, as far Westward as grants of land have been made by this Government ; 
and to deal with any person or persons that may presume to interrupt the inhabit- 
ants or settlers on said lands as to law and justice do appertain ; the pretended 
right of jurisdiction mentioned in the aforesaid Proclamation notwithstanding. 

Given at the Council Chamber in Portsmouth, the 13th day of March, 1764, 
and in the fourth year ot His Majesty's reign. 

B. WENTWORTH. 

The controversy, thus begun by gubernatorial proclamation, was 



LIFE OF SETH WARNER. 13 

continued with much bitterness for a period of fifteen years. In 
1764, the matter in question was decided by Imperial decree in 
favor of New York, and the claim of that government to jurisdic- 
tion extending to the East as far as Connecticut I'iver, was con- 
firmed. "His Majesty was pleased, with the advice of liis Privy 
Council, to approve of what is therein proposed, and doth accord- 
ingly hereby order and declare tlie Western banks of the Con- 
necticut river, from where it enters the Province of the Massa- 
■chusetts Bay, as far North as the 45th degree of North latitude, 
to he the boundary line between the said two Provinces of New 
Hampshire and New York. Wherefore, the respective Governors 
and "Commanders of his Majesty's said Provinces of New Hamp- 
shire and New York, for the time being, and all others whom it 
may concern, are to take notice of Plis Majesty's pleasure and 
govern themselves accordingly." 

To this royal decree, different and widely variant construction 
was given. The settlers on the New Hampshire Grants consider- 
ed that its fair operation was to place them under the future juris- 
■diction of New York. The government of that Colony, on the 
contrary, contended that the order had a retroactive and retro- 
spective bearing, and determined not only what should he, but what 
always had hccn, the geographic limits of the Colony of New York. 
The settlers on the New Hampshire Grants inferred that tlie royal 
decree could in no wise affect their land-titles, or any past con- 
tracts. The New York authorities, taking a different view of the 
royal decision, insisted that the grants made by the government of 
New Hampshire were unauthoi'ized by the Crown, and were, of 
course, illegal and consequently void. If the same interpretation 
had been given to the royal decree by the authorities of both Col- 
onies, all historians unite in saying there would have arisen no 
controversy like that which was carried on with great acrimony 
from the year 1763 to 1775. 

The order of the 20th July 1764, created disaffection among the 
settlers on the New Hampshire Grants, of whom Seth Warner 
was an acknowledged leader. At the outset, the order was I'e- 
garded as extending the jurisdiction of New York over their ter- 
ritory, commencing with the dote of said decree ; and in this they 
were willing to acquiesce. But not apprehensive that the titles 



14 MR. Houghton's ADDnfiss. 

to their farms could be at all affected., they were astonished when 
they were summoned to re-purchase or abandon the lands they had 
received by grant from the Crown. The Governor of New 
Hampshire interposed his remonstrance, complaining of a change 
of jurisdiction. As the remonstrance proved ineffectual, like a 
shrewd politician, who knows instinctively which is the stronger 
side of any question, and who has, like Orator Puff, two tones to 
his voice, he complacently " recommended to the proprietors 
and settlers, due obedience to the authority and laws of Nev/ 
York." 

Soon after the issuing of this mild recommendation, the Gov- 
ernment of New York proceeded to divide the territory into Coun- 
ties, and to establish Courts and County seats. The Grants were 
organized into four Counties — Charlotte and Gloucester on the 
North, and Albany and Cumberland on the South ; and this or- 
ganization was continued until the Declaration of Independence 
on the part of Vermont in, 1777. Those settlers who peremptorily 
refused to surrender their charters, pursuant to the claims of the 
New York authorities, were sued before these Courts. As the 
judgments which were rendered were simply the echoes of the 
gubernatorial voice, and as the plaintiff v/as certain to be success- 
ful in his suit, no alternative was presented to the defendants, but 
either to re-purchase the farms once paid for, or to surrender the 
earnings and betterments of their industry to new claimants under 
New York titles. 

All efforts to execute judgments obtained in these Courts, where 
it was decided that duly authenticated copies of royal orders to 
the Governor of New Hampshire, and of the grants made pur- 
suant to'those orders, should not be read in evidence, were com- 
monly useless. Generally they were unavailing, and oftentimes 
were attended with mirth-compelling and disastrous consequences. 
For the purpose of rendering such resistance effectual, various 
associations were formed, and at a Convention holden in Benning- 
ton, an agent was appointed to go to lhe Court of St. James, and, 
representing the onerous grievances of the settlers, pray for a 
confirmation of tlie grants made by the Governor of New Hamp- 
shire. The result of his mission was an order from His RIajesty, 
strictly charging, requiring and commanding "the Governor or 



LIFE OF SETII WARNER. 15 

Commander in Chief of His Majesty's Province of New York, 
for the time being, upon pain of His Majesty's iiighest displeasure, 
not to presume to make any grant whatsoever of any part of the 
lands described in the Report of the Board of Trade, until His 
Majesty's further pleasure concerning the same shall be known." 

This prohibition was explicit enough. The Governor of New 
York continued, however, to make further grants. Writs of 
ejectment were prayed out by lawyers, whose bread depended up- 
on " fat contentions and flowing fees," and inasmuch as no legal 
defence was tolerated, the settlers were driven to the last resort, as 
the only remaining alternative. 

"Hitherto," say the Vermont State papers, " New York had 
founded her claim to the lands in question, on the grant to the 
Duke of York. Not choosing, however, longer to rely on so pre- 
carious a tenure, application was made to the Crov.n for a confir- 
mation of the claim. This application was supported by a petition, 
purporiing to be signed by a great number of the settlers on the 
New Hampshire grants, representing that it would be for their 
advantage to be annexed to the Colony of New York, and praying 
that the Western bank of Connecticut river might be established 
as the Eastern boundary of that Province." 

In an article in the Connecticut Courant, published in April, 
1772, there is a frank, and perhaps just, commentary on the strat- 
egy employed by the then Albany Regency, to acquire jurisdiction 
over the New Hampshire Grant.?. I transcribe the gist of said 
publication, as throwing some light on the subject of my present 
discourse: — 

* * * * " The fallacious policy, made use of in New York to obtain the ju- 
risdiction, has given great umbiage to the said inhabitants. The Yorkers sent 
spies through the said country, and by one pretence or other, found out the names of 
the said inhabitants, and then, unknown to them, afnxed their several names 
to a petition requesting His Majesty and Council to confirm and anne.x them to the 
Province oi New York. This legerdemain was undoubtedly the cause of their ex- 
tending their jurisdiction to the banks of Connecticut river. If so, it is probable, 
as the evidence of this fact was sent to His ?,Iajesty and Council last Summer, it' 
will be the cause why His Majesty and Council should alter the jurisdiction to New 
Hampshire. 

" Again ; be this as it will, the unreasonable and inhumane use the Yorkers have 
made of the powers of jurisdiction since they obtained it, has given more trouble 
disquietude and uneasiness than their first detestable way of obtainino- it. Certain 
designing men in New York, having purchased patents from that Province and 
lapped them on patents antecedently granted under the great seal of the Province 
of New Hampshire— which antecedent patents were settled by the New Hamp- 
shire grantees, prior to the dates of said patents under the great seal of the Province 
of New York, notwithstanding the New York grantees have brought sundry writs 
of ejectment against the New Hampshire grantees and actual settlers, and haviu" 



16 MR. Houghton's address. 

obtained judgment agaiiTSt them, proceeded further and took out writs of possession 
as they called them, and by order of Law actually dispossessed sundry of said in- 
habitants, grantees as aforesaid, of their houses and I'anns, leaving them to suffi-r 
the inclemency of the weather, and deprived of all the necessaries of life. Their 
new masters having taken and monopolized their earthly all to themselves, these 
indigent families having in the lirst place expended their several fortunes in bring- 
ing their said farms out of a wilderness state into that of fruitful fields, gardens and 
orchards. The whole country, consisting of more than fifteen hundred families, 
was greatly alarmed at the event which had begun to take place, was in great con- 
sternation — each individual reading their own intolerable destruction from that 
which had already begun. Still the writs of ejectment coming thick and taster — 
women sobbing and lamenting, children crying, and men pierced to the liea'-t with 
sorrow and indignation at the approaching tyranny of New York. Meanwhile, a 
high-spirited man took a small o.\-goad and coolly belabored one of the oificers, 
who had gloried nnrch in being the instrument of the New York oppression. — 
Zeal taking fire from this example, in the breasts of great numbers of the people, 
the officers^perceived that it was not safe for them to serve writs of ejectment upon 
the people, but moie in special they were in hazard if they presumed to dispossess 
the people of their houses and lands. Though in any matters of debt by note, 
promise or book, or in fine for any sort of exercise of authority, except depriving 
people of their country, or had a direct and apparent tendency thereto, ofhcers did, 
and at this time do officiate in office as unmolested, nay, actually assisted when they 
desire it, as in any plantation in English America. 

Strange ! G — Tryon should tax the said inhabitants of riotousness, faction and 
disobedience, in every instance, ''that they oppose every legal process," &c., as if 
his soul doted on such a sort of demeanor and obedience from said inhabitants, as 
would give him and his favorites peaceable possession and enjoyment of their whole 
country, which they have, by their money and labor, made vastly valuable— having 
metamorphosed it from the condition of a howling wilderness into villaires and fruit- 
ful plantations. This is flagrantly that sort of loyalty and this sort of jurisdiction 
aimed at by Gov. Tryon and his associates. 

Providence has hitherto mightily protected Bennington and the Northern set- 
tlements from the policy and ravages of New York, when the invisible posse made 
their appearance at that town last Summer. God overruled it for good * * * 
for the Sheriff's party, when they saw the industry of the people ,and were informed 
how they firstly purchased the lands and paid their money for the same to one of 
His Majesty's Governors, the generality of the Sherifi^'s party declared that they 
would rather be accessory to oppose the Sheriff, than to dispossess the people.— 
Furthermore there was a strong party of volunteers, well armed, from the Bay 
Province, and though they were willing to defi?nd their settlers from the jaws of 
the "V^ork'ers even by force uf arms, yet they were much more rejoiced to see so 
ffenerous a soil-it in the Sheriff's party, so that that fray seemed to open the eyesot 
Sreal numbers of the people, both in the Province of New 1 ork: and the Bay Pro- 
vince, and convince them of the Justice of the cause in which the settlers were 

^"flfeTeis one more sort of cunning made use of by New York, which is to iriake 
such a use of their jurisdiction as to make presentment of every sensible, bo d- 
suirited man who adheres closely to the maintaining the property of their lands ; 
and there have been many occasions to either oppose the Sheriff in dispossessing 
the oeonle or opposint^ the oflicers in their attempt to take such of the people as 
thev are pleased to enroll rioters. By these means, they enroll most of the country. 
Self-nreservation makes it necessary that the said inhabitants hold together and de- 
lend themselves a<^ainst this execrable cunning of New \ ork, for otherwise the 
Yorkers would so punish and bring to poverty every patriotic, generous and va - 
ian man on their lands, that the residue of the famt-hearted and ignorant people 
would be by them enslaved into such measures as tyranny and avarice should die- 
tate 




XefhavVdoVeTand so foi^rhefuture they will maintain their possessions.^ 

*See a Report of a Committee of Council about laws on the West side of Con- 
necticut river, in the Appendix. 



LIFE OF SETH WARNER. 17 

Seth Warner was no idle spectator during these exciting 
times. Whether he would yield up his property to a set of land- 
sharks, or make forcible resistance, was a question upon wliich he 
took but little time to ponder. He advocated resistance : and 
warmly approved of the proceedings of that Convention which as- 
sembled at Bennington and — 

" Resolved, To support their rights and property under the New Hampshire 
Grants against the usurpation and unjust claims ot tlie Governor and Council of 
New York by force, as law and justice were denied them." 

This resolution was zealously supported ; spirited and determin- 
ed resistance to the authority of New York ensued. Several of 
the inhabitants of the grants were indicted as rioters. '' A military 
association," says a cotemporaneous writer, '-was formed, of which 
Ethan Allen was appointed Colonel Commandant, and Seth 
Warner, Remember Baker, Robert Cochran, Gideon Warner, 
and some others, were appointed Captains. Committees of Safety 
were, likewise, appointed in several towns West of the Green 
Mountains." 

The Sheriff of the County of Albany, to whom was entrusted 
the duty of enforcing writs of possession, enjoyed an office which 
could hardly be denominated a sinecure. Whenever he appeared 
upon the grants with his j^osse comiiatus — often numbering 750 
men, all told — he was sure of being met by a party equally nu- 
merous, and determined to frustrate his object. Of such parties 
Seth Warner and Ethan Allen were the active leaders and 
Captains; and a Proclamation was accordingly issued by the 
Governor of New York, offering '-'a reward of £1.50 for the ap- 
prehension of Ethan Allen, and £50 each for Warner and five 
others." Determined to return the compliment promptly, Allen 
and Warner, and the other outlaws, issued a counter Proclamation 
"offering jice pounds for the apprehension and delivery to any 
officer of the Green Mountain Boys, of the Attorney General of 
New York." 

It will be borne in mind that the resolutions, adopted by the Con- 
ventions of the people, were regarded as the law of the New 
Hampshire Grants. Every infraction of the law thus made, was 
ibllowed by a punishment of great severity. That most frequent- 
ly inflicted, was the application to the naked back of the " Beech 
Seal," and perpetual banishment from the Grants. The sentence 



18 MR. Houghton's address. 

of Ben Hough will serve my purpose as a sample of the punish- 
ment then in vogue. History tells us that Ben v/as a violent 
"Yorker," and resided near Clarendon. Receiving, by dint of 
importunity, an appointment of Justice of the Peace within and 
for the County of Charlotte, from the government of New York, 
he was not content with the simple honor of the appointment. He 
seemed to be anxious to distinguish himself in the new position to 
which the partiality of the New York authorities had promoted 
him. And, certainly, he gained distinction ; — but such distinction 
as might well be dispensed with, by all those v/ho ])refer the honors 
of a private station, to the unenviable notoriety of cutting a most 
ludicrous figure on the page of History. 

After obtaining his commission, he promptly proceeded to exe- 
cute the duties of his newly acquired office. He received, but 
disregarded, the warning to desist which was served upon him by 
the " Committee of Safety." Being found incorrigible, he was 
arrested and carried before a Committee consisting of Ethan Al- 
len, Seth Warner, and others who were proclaimed as outlaws. 
" The decree of the Convention," says Thompson's History, "and 
the charges of the prisoner being read in his presence, he ac- 
knowledged that he had been active in promoting the passage of 
a certain law, and in the discharge of his duty as a Magistrate ; 
but pleaded the jurisdiction of New York over the Grant, in jus- 
tification of his conduct." 

But, sad to relate, although Ben's dilatory plea was, under or- 
dinary circumstances, worthy of consideration, this Committee dis- 
regarded it and pronounced upon him the following sentence, 
viz : — 

" That the j^risoner he taken from the har of this Committee of 
Safely, and he tied to a tree, and then on his naked hack, receive two 
hundred stripes ; his hack hcing dressed, he should depart out of the 
district, and on return without s])ecial leave of the Convention, to suf- 
fer death J ^ 

This sentence was carried into execution in the presence of a 
large concourse of people : and at his request the following cer- 
tificate was furnished for his future reference :— 



LIFE OF SETH WARNER. 19 

" Sunderland, 30th January, 1775. 
This may certify the inhabitants of the New Hampshire Grants, that Benjamin 
Hough hath this day received a full punishment for his crimes committed heretofore 
ao-ainst this country ; and our inhabitants are ordered to jjive him, the said Hough, 
al'ree and unmolested passport toward the city of New York, or to the Westward 
of our Grants, he behaving himself as becoineth. 
Given under our hands tiie day and date aforesaid. 

ETHAN ALLEN, 
SETH WARNER." 

When this paper was handed to Ben, Allen observed that the 
certificate, together with the receipt on his hack, would, no doubt, be 
admitted as legal evidence before the Supreme Court and the 
Governor and Council of New York, although, in several instances, 
to his knowledge, the King's warrant to Gov. Wentworth and 
His E.xcellency's sign manual, with the Great Seal of the Province 
of New Hampshire, would not.* 

Living, as their descendants now do, in the enjoyment of just 
and equal laws, and in times when such penalties are never in- 
flicted, it is no slight task to form a proper estimate of the meas- 
ures now under review. Those who regard them as severe must 
bear in mind that, aside from the alternative of surrendering their 
farms, which their industry had made to blossom as the rose, or 
a determined resistance by force, the settlers on the New Hamp- 
shire Grants were made to feel the rigor of laws more tyrannical 
and sanguinary than can readily be found in any other code than 
that of Draco. 

I now quote from an extraordinary law enacted on the 9th of 
March, 1774, by the General Assembly of New York : 

" Section 5. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that, if any 
person or persons, within the said counties or either of them, not being lawfully 
authorized a judge, justice or magistrate, shall assume judicial power, or shall try, 
tine, sentence or condemn any person who shall either be absent or shall unlaw- 
fully or forcibly be seized, taken, or brought before him or them for trial or punish- 
ment ; or if any person or persons shall aid or assist in such illegal proceedings, or 
shall enforce, execute or carry the same into effect; or if any person or persons 
shall, unlawfully seize, detain or confine, or assault and beat any magistrate or 
civil officer, for, or in respect of any act or proceeding in the due exercise of his 
function, or in order to cotnpel him to resign, remove or surcease his commission 
or authority, or to terrify, hinder, or prevent him from perf()rming and discharging 
the duties thereof ; ***** that then, each of the said oSences respective- 
ly be adjudged ftilony without benefit of clergy ; and the ofit-nders therein shall be 
adjudged felons, and shall suffer death as in cases of felony without benefit of cler- 
gy" 

It was made the duty of the Governor to publish the names of 

such persons in the New York Gazette & Weekly Mercury, as 

*See Appendix. 
9 



20 MK, Houghton's addeess. 

should be indicted for any capital olTence, with an order in Coun- 
cil commanding such offenders to surrender themselves within 
seventy days after the publication thereof, tmder the jicnalty of 
being convicted of felony and to suffer death tcilhoul benefit of 
clergy ! ! 

With the passage of such a law as this, every prospect of re- 
conciliation and submission to the claims of New York evaporated. 
The New Hampshire grantees, suspecting the action of the New 
York authorities to originate in the avarice of a set of speculators 
who coveted their lands — knowing that the people of New York 
felt no disposition to aid in enforcing such claims — satisfied that 
the popular sentiment was highly favorable to the rights of the 
settlers — and being aware, from past experience, that the militia of 
the Colony could never be induced to contend against them — re- 
garded with contempt every threat or legal enactment intended to 
inspire terror. ''Indeed," say the Vermont State Papers, "the 
idea of submissioji seems never for a moment to have occupied the 
attention of the handful of brave men against whom these meas- 
ures were directed. Educated in the school of adversity, and 
inured to hardship and danger, they met and sustained the shock 
with a firm, unbroken spirit." 

'• Let it not be said that the infliction of this barbarous punish- 
ment proves that the people of tiie Grants were less civilized than 
the people of other parts of New England ; for long afterwards 
this relic of barbarism was found in the criminal code of all the 
States ; but a more advanced state of civilization has since broken 
up the habit by which it had been continued through generations 
of civilized man, and it has been exploded never again to find a 
place in the code of any of the American States."* 

Aside from the reasons heretofore given for retaliation on the 
part of the Green Mountain Boys, it need not escape remembrance 
that as necessity drove them to resistance, so sound policy would 
naturally dictate that such resistance should be of a character to 
inspire a full and firm belief that it would be effectual. 

The New Hampshire grantees were by no means so engrossed 
with their own troubles as to be indifferent to the policy pursued 
by the Mother Country towards her Colonies in America. As the 

*Memoir of Col. Seth Warner, by the Hon. Daniel Chipman. 



LIFE OF SETH WARNER. 21 

settlers were chiefly emismnts from Connecticut and Massachu- 
setts, they sympathized with the feeling of discontent which per- 
vaded those Colonies. Those residing on Connecticut River, who 
had surrendered their original charters and taken out new grants 
under the broad seal of New York, and had submitted to the juris- 
diction of that Colony, were comparatively unconcerned spectators 
of that bitter controversy in which the grantees on the West side 
of the Mountains were interested. The massacre, as it was called, 
of the 13th of March, at Westminister Court House, however, ex- 
asperated them and raised a tumult of opposition to New York. 
At a meeting of Committees appointed by a large body of inhabit- 
ants ©n the East side of the range of Green Mountains, held at 
Westminister on the 11th day of April, 1775, it was 

" Voted, That it is the duty of said inhabitaiiits, as predicated on the eternal and 
immutable law of sell-preservation, to wholly renounce and resist the administra- 
tion of the government of New York, till such time as the lives and property ot 
those inhabitants may be secured by it ; or till such time as they can Jiave oppor- 
tunity to lay their grievances before his Most Gracious Majesty in Council, together 
with a proper remonstrance against the unjustitiable conduct of that government ; 
with an humble petition to be taken out of so oppressive a jurisdiction, and, either 
annexed to some other government, or erected and incorporated into a new one, 
as may appear best to the said inhabitants, to the Royal wisdom and clemency, and 
till such time as his Majesty siiall settle this controversy." 

It has been my purpose to present from the historical memoranda, 
letters and other valuable manuscripts which 1 have been permit- 
ted to examine, such facts and data as will give a correct view of 
this most interesting controversy. A complete narrative of that 
period of history remains a desideratum, which will possibly be 
hereafter supplied by some authentic writer, who is willing to labor 
diligently and master many of those secret manceuvres, which 
now greatly puzzle those who are vnost familiar with the various 
phases of that important period. 

I have designed — not, I fear, without being very tedious — to 
describe the feeling which swayed the entire population of Ver- 
mont, before the attention of its inhabitants was engrossed with an- 
other more important subject. What would have been the result 
of that controversy, if the minds of the grantees had not been di- 
rected from its consideration, it is not easih^ conjectured. The con- 
troversy with New York was arrested by the commencement of the 
Revolutionary W^ar. 

On the 19th day of April, A. D. 1775, there was a serious con- 
flict between Old England and her American Colonies. The at- 



22 MR. Houghton's address. 

tention of New Yorkers and Green Mountain Boys was diverted 
from their land difficulties, their beech-seal certificates, and their 
midnight riots, to a higher and more important controversy, in- 
volving the independence of the whole American People ! — 
Soft words had been followed by hard blows, and England had 
degenerated so much from the proud spirit which ennobled the 
breasts of Hampden and Milton, as to wage a bloody war with 
Liberty — that principle of power, of heroism, of hope, without 
which not even the self-styled " Mistress of the World" could be 
great or good. It is not amiss to say, in this connection, that Poetry 
can dwell in no soul, Eloquence can escape from no lips, Patriot- 
ism can dictate no worthy deed, and Heroic Goodness can never 
bud, bloom and blossom, without the mild light, the genial warmth 
and ruddy glow, of Liberty. He, whose chariots are the clouds, 
who rideth upon the wings of the wind, whose ministers are a 
flaming fire — who meteth out the earth as it were a span, who 
holds the world in the hollow of His hand, hath so written His 
unalterable decree. 

" 'Tis Liberty alone that gives the flower 
Of fleeting lite its histre and perfume ; 
And we are weeds without it !" 

On that memorable day, was blown a trumpet-blast which her- 
alded the advent of the North American Union. On that day was 
begun, in the words of the " Sage of Quincy," now sleeping with 
his fathers, " the struggle for chartered rights — for the cause of 
Algernon Sidney and John Hampden — for trial by jury — the 
Habeas Corpus and Magna Charta." 

At this period, prominent and, in fact, foremost among the 
Green Mountain Boys, stood SETH WARNER. I am aware, that 
his exploits have not been duly commemorated. Clio, the Muse 
of glory and of history, whose attributes are a wreath of laurel 
upon her head, a trumpet in her right hand and a roll of papyrus 
in her left, has been too much occupied in dancing and singing 
■with Apollo and his little group in more genial climates, to pay a 
proper tribute to his memory. 

" No bard embalms and sanctifies Ms song — 
And History, so warm on other themes, 
Is cold on this." 

Up to the time of this present speaking, nothing, save a few obitu- 



LIFE OF SETH WARNER. 23 

avy notices of hiirij and a short biographical sketch in the Rural 
Magazine, printed in 1795, has been published ; and so the light 
of his fame has been suffered to be hid. 

It is to be hoped that the venerable gentleman — the Hon. Daniel 
Chip3IAN — whose learned leisure is spent in the solitude of the 
mountains of Ripton, and who is devoting the residue of his 
chequered life to rescuing the memory of departed patriots from 
impending oblivion, will be successful in his noble endeavor to 
attract public attention to the merits of this modest and energetic 
lover of his country. If he succeed in securing from his coun- 
trymen justice, on his behalf, his literary enterprize must com- 
mand, as it will deserve, the gratitude of every admirer of heroism 
and the thanks of every lover of letters.* 

No man was more ardent in his love of freedom and good order, 
more unyielding in his hostility to tyranny in all of its manifesta- 
tions, and more frank and bold in the expression of his political 
opinions, than Seth Warner. But, unlike his colleague, Ethan 
Allen, he had no talent nor ambition as a writer of political pam- 
phlets. He possessed a vigorous intellect, and was gifted with an 
uncommon share of self-possession — qualities which enabled him 
to gain and retain the confidence of all persons within the pale of 
his influence. 

By way of illustrating the character of those times, and the 
personal popularity of Seth Warner, I am tempted, even at the 
risk of unpardonable prolixity, to quote an account of the recruit- 
ing of a Regiment on the New Hampshire Grants, and the ap- 
pointment of the field officers, as found in the first Volume of 
" American Biography," by Jared Sparks, page 288 : 

" The troops from Connecticut, under Colonel Hinman, at length 
arrived at Ticonderoga, and Colonel Allen's command ceased. 
His men chiefly returned home, their term of service having ex- 
pired. He and Seth Warner set ofl" on a journey to the Con- 
tinental Congress, with a design of procuring pay for the soldiers 
who had served under them, and of soliciting authority to raise a 
new regiment on the New Hampshire Grants. In both these ob- 
jects, they were successful. By an order of Congress, they were 

*See Appendix. 



24 MR. Houghton's address. 

introduced on tlie floor of the House, and they communicated ver- 
bally to the members such information as was desired. Congress 
voted to allow tlie men, who had been employed in taking and 
garrisoning Ticonderoga and Crown Point, the same pay as was 
received by officers and privates in the American army ; and, also 
recommended to the Provincial Congress of New York, that, after 
consulting with General Schuyler, ' they should employ in the 
army to be raised for the defence of America, those called Green 
Mountain Boys, under such officers as the said Green Mountain 
Boys should choose.' This matter was referred to the Govern- 
ment of New York, that no controversy might arise about juris- 
diction, at a time when affairs of vastly greater moment demanded 
the attention of all parties. Allen and Warner repaired without 
delay to tlie New York Congress, presented themselves at the 
door of the Hall and requested an audience, — the resolve of the 
Continental Congress having already been received and discuss- 
ed. 

" An embarrassing difficulty now arose among the members, 
which caused much warmth of debate. The persons who asked 
admittance were outlaws, by an existing act of the Legislature of 
New York, and, although the Provincial Congress was a distinct 
body from the old assembly, organized in opposition to it, and hold- 
ing its recent principles and doings in detestation, yet some mem- 
bers had scruples on the subject of disregarding, in so palpable a 
manner, the laws of the land, as to join in public conference with 
men who had been proclaimed by the highest authority in the Col- 
ony to be rioters and felons. There was also another party, whose 
feelings and interest were enlisted on the side of their scruples, 
who had taken an active part in the contest, and whose antipathies 
were too deeply rooted to be at once eradicated. On the other 
hand, the ardent friends of liberty, who regarded tlie great cause 
at stake as paramount to evei'y tiling else, and who were willing 
to show their disrespect for the old assembly, argued not onl}^ the 
injustice but tyranny of the act in question, and represented, in 
strong colors, the extreme impolicy of permitting ancient feuds to 
mar the harmony and obstruct the concert of action, so necessary 
for attaining the grand object of the wishes and efforts of every 
member present. In the midst of the debate, Captain Sears mov- 



LIFE OF SETH W^KNEK. 25 

ed that Ethan Allen should be admitted to the floor of the House. 
The motion was seconded by Melancthon Sbiith, and was carried 
by a majority of two to one. A similar motion prevailed in regard 
to Seth Warner. When these gentlemen had addressed the 
House they withdrew, and it was resolved that a regiment of 
Green Mountain Boys should be raised, not exceeding five hun- 
dred men, and to consist of seven companies. 

" They were to choose their own otficers, except the field offi- 
cers, who were to be appointed by the Congress of New York ; 
but it was requested that the people would nominate such persons 
as they approved. A Lieutenant Colonel was to be the highest 
officer. The execution of the resolve was referred to General 
Schuyler, who immediately gave notice to the inhabitants of the 
Grants, and ordered tliem to proceed in organizing the regi- 
ment. 

" Meanwhile Allen and Warner had finished their mission 
and returned to their friends. The Committees of several town- 
ships assembled at Dorset to choose officers for the new regiment. 
The choice fell on Seth Warner for Lievfenant Colonel, and on 
Samuel SAFFORi>ybr Major. This nomination was confirmed by 
the New York Congress." 

" Allen," says Chipman's " Memoir of Seth W^arner," now 
printed but not yet published,* " was sometimes rash and impru- 
dent. Warner, on the other hand, never vi^rote anything for the 
public eye. He was modest and unassuming. He appeared to 
be satisfied with being useful, as he manifested no solicitude that 
liis services should be known or appreciated. He was always 
cool and deliberate, and in his sound judgment, as well as in his 
energ}^, resolution and firmness, all classes had tlie most unlimited 
confidence. 

" From the foregoing brief sketch of the very different charac- 
ters of Allen and Warner, it is evident that they were far more 
efficient and more useful in defending tlie Nevv Hampshire Grants, 
than they would have been, had they both been Allens or both 
Warners, and it would not be extravagant to say, that had either 
been wanting, the independence of Vermont might not have been 

*CHiriMAM"s Memoir of Setli Warner,, pp. 35-G. 



26 MR- Houghton's addkkss. 

achieved. But in selecting a person to command a I'egiment, the 
men of that day gave the preference to Warner. Accordingly, 
the Convention assembled at Dorset to nominate officers for a reg- 
iment of Green Mountain Boys, nominated Warner for Lieutenant 
Colonel to command the regiment, by a vote of 41 to 5. And as 
Allen was a candidate for the office, as appears by his letter to 
Governor Trumbull written shortly after the officers were nomi- 
nated, in which he says, that he was overlooked because the old 
men were reluctant to go to war, the vote must be considered as a 
fair expression of the public sentiment in relation to the qualifica- 
tions of the two men for the office. This is confirmed by the few 
cotemporaries of Allen and Warner who still survive, and by 
the traditionary accounts of tlie men of that day." 

Without pausing to comment upon the fact that sufficient atten- 
tion has not been paid to the eminent services of Col. Warner, it 
may be proper to say that when the story of this period in the 
History of Vermont is written in detail, his exploits will not be 
forgotten. 

Like many of the settlers upon the Grants, Col. Warner was 
a man of an iron frame. He stood six feet three inches and three 
fourths in his stockings, and was possessed of rare physical strength 
and agility. Corresponding with such a body, his mind was ac- 
tive and resolute, and had been wrought to the exercise of its 
hiorhest energies in a struggle involving everything dear to the 
heart of such a man. Having arrived at a conclusion, he was 
wanting neither in the courage nor the ability to carry his decision 
into prompt execution. He could endure any thing with more 
composure than oppression. 

Entertaining such sentiments, which were never disguised, it 
excites in our minds no wonder that the New York authorities 
should have proscribed him as an outlaw. Such proscription, how- 
ever, seemed to draw around the determined champion of freedom 
warm and devoted friends who clung to him more firmly as he 
was the more bitterly opposed. Among his friends, there obtained 
but one voice and one mind. Heterogeneous as that little band 
was in its composition, it could neither be intimidated nor flattered, 
neither be bouglit nor subdued. 

There was burning in their bosoms one clear and never-dying 



LIFE OF SETH WARNER. 19 

flame of freedom. A palpable principle of right being outraged, 
their property, by an unjustifiable judicial interpretation and de- 
cision, being jeoparded, they were startled into determined resist- 
ance. Under the guidance of Seth Warner and his worthy col- 
league Ethan Allen, they found no time, as they had no dispo- 
sition, to whine or languish. No torpid numbness or chilling indiP 
ference crept over their faculties or clouded their minds. When 
any infringement upon their personal liberty or private property 
was attempted, a feeling of opposition sprang up in their breasts, 
and, instantaneously, like the passage of the electric fluid, a sym- 
pathetic determination to defend their rights stimulated them to 
action. 

Gentlemen : These men were our ancestros. Their noble con- 
duct, their patriotism, gained for us the rights and privileges of 
an independent sovereignty in this Republic, which we are now 
enjoying. And what, let me ask, in view of these circumstances, 
should now constitute this commonwealth ? 

" What constitutes a State I 

Not high-raised battlemenis or labored mounds, 

Thick walls or moated gates. 

Not cities proud with spires and turrets crowned. 

Not bays and broad armed ports. 

Where laughing at the storm, rich navies ride; 

But men — true-hearted men ; 

Men who their rights do know. 

And knowing dare maintain, 

These, these constitute a Slate." 

Gladly would I dwell on the military exploits of Col. Warner 
— of the capture of Old Ticonderoga and Crown Point — of his 
bravery and daring in the Province of Canada — of his courage 
at the siege of Quebec — of his glorious services in the second 
battle of Bennington, but time and the proprieties of this occasion 
will not now permit. I have, however, in my custody a petition 
to Congress on behalf of the gallant Colonel, which, presenting as 
it does, a brief and correct summary of his services, ought to be 
preserved ; for it is a noble tribute to his memory from the pens 
and hearts of men who knew and appreciated his excellence as a 
Soldier, Patriot and Man. 

" Bennington, July 7th, 1786. 
To His Excellency the President of Congress : — 

Sir : — We beg leave to give Congress a brief account of the services and 
sufferings of the late Col. Seth Warnek, particularly his sufferings which ap- 

10 



20 MR. Houghton's address. 

pear to have been immediately in consequence of his exposing himself in the 
service of his country in the late War, in which he was of the first that stepped 
forth in this quarter. 

At the first reduction of Ticonderoga, St. Johns, &c.,in A. D. 1775, he per- 
formed an active part. At Longueuil, in Canada, under the command of Gen. 
Montgomery, in an action in which he commanded, his bravery and prudence 
were conspicuous aud much applauded — which Gen. Montgomery was pleased 
to testify by sundry letters. He was in the siege before Quebec and, in the 
course of the fatigues of this campaign and retreat, he received the first sensible 
injury to his health. In 1777, General Schuyler was pleased to order him on 
a particular command into Jessop's Patent, where, in the prosecution of the ser- 
vices of his command, he e.xposed himself so unreservedly as to take an effect- 
ual bane to his after health. Before this, he was of a most firm constitution, 
but ever after declined and became a prey of an inveterate and extraordinary 
disease which began now and fell into his feet and legs, and which continued to 
rage, baffling all attempts for a cure until it put an end to his life, December 26, 
A. D. 1784. 

It is probable, had Col. Warner at this time retired from the service, he 
might, in some good degree, have recovered his health ; but it being the trying 
time of American affairs in this quarter, there was no room in a mind like his 
to attend to such a proposition and accordingly be persevered until his important 
and memorable actions at Hubbardton and Bennington. 

After this, he began sensibly to decline, so that there remained but little pros- 
pect of his future usefiilness. He, however, grappled with his disorder and con- 
tinued in the service until receiving a wound from an ambush of Indians near 
Fort George, in September, A. D. 1780 (at which time the only two of his 
officers that were with him fell dead by his side,) he was obliged to retire for 
the last time a little before his Regiment was reduced. After this, his case be- 
came truly effecting, and himself a spectacle of human woes until death closed 
the scene. 

With this account, we beg leave to recommend to the particular favor of 
Congress the Widow and fatherless children of the deceased, whose circum- 
stances, as we are informed, are quite necessitous. 

Sir, Your Excellency's very humble servants, 
THOMAS CHITTENDEN, SAMUEL SAFFORD, 
THOMAS TOLMAN, ISAAC TICHENOR, 

ETHAN ALLEN, STEPHEN R. BRADLEY, 

PAUL SPOONER, GIDEON BROWNSON, 

TIMOTHY BROWNSON, HEMAN SWIFT, 
SAMUEL CANFIELD." 

And now, after the silver cord was loosed and the golden bowl 
was broken, in the little parish of Roxbury, in the town of Wood- 
bury, near the banks of a stream which pays tribute to the river 
Housatonic, lie the remains of Col. Seth Warner. He has 
plucked his last flower; he has bagged his last game; he has flog- 
ged his last Sheriff"; he has fought his last battle ! 

" How are the Mighty fallen and the weapons of War perished !" 
This expressive text from the II. Samuel, eh. 2, v. 27, was ap- 
propriately discussed in a funeral discourse by the Rev. Thomas 
Canfield, when his ashes were consigned to earth with all the 
honors of War, in a grave remote from the Grants he loved so well 



LIFE OF SETH WARNER. 21 

and for whose sake he had yielded up his life in the bloom of 
manhood. 

On a white marble memorial-stone in Roxbury, over which the 
moss has been suffered to grow, may now be deciphered with 
much pains-taking, the following inscription : — 
IN MEMORY OF 
COL. SETH WARNER, ESQUIRE, 

WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE DECEMBER 26, A, D. 1784, 

IN THE 42d tear of HIS AGE. 

" Triumphant leader at our armies' head, 
" Whose martial glory struck a panic dread ; 
" Thy warlike deeds engraven on this stone, 
" Tell future ages what a hero's done. 
"Full sixteen battles he did fight, 
" For to procure his country's right ; 
" Oh ! this brave hero, he did fall 
"By death, who ever conquers all. 

'' When this tou see, 

" Remember me." 

Biographical sketches and recitals from the lips of cotempora- 
ries, give assurance that the visit of death, of old named "King of 
Terrors," was caused by too constant 1 oil and exposure on behalf 
of his country.* But the distressing maladies of his death-bed 
he bore with the fortitude of a soldier. There was solace to him, 
pending the agony of suffering, in the reflection that his labors 
were crowned with success. A source of grief, which obtruded 
itself upon his mind, was the consciousness that his widow and 
three children would be left destitute of the means of livelihood. 
The lands, which he once owned, had, while he was engaged in 
active service on behalf of his country, been sold for taxes ; and 
the gore in Essex Count3'', granted to his heirs by the General As- 
sembly of Vermont in 1787, was found to be of little or no value, 
and remains unsettled to the present time. Col, Warner was so 
much engrossed with the patriotic passion that he omitted saving 
his own land while he could save his country. 

Regret, however, was unavailing then. Disease in an aggra- 
vated form, had fastened its fangs upon his system, and death had 
put his gripe upon his body. He was not permitted to die in his 
senses. Prior to his decease, he was the victim of a raging de- 
lirium ; and, in his wild imagining, fancied himself at the head 

*See Appendix. 



22 MR. Houghton's address. 

of his regiment of Rangers, and, on his dying couch, restrained 
by a constant guard of able-bodied men, he would fight his battles 
over again. The preternatural strength, with which he was en- 
dowed, decreased, at last, with the progress of his insidious mala- 
dy, and the skillful botanist, whose prescriptions had prolonged 
the lives of others, could not restore his own reason or save his 
own life. The practised huntsman, the sinews of whose gigantic 
frame were hardened in the hunting grounds of Vermont, and who 
had never feared the face of any man, paled and trembled be- 
fore the grim visage of that huntsman whose name is Death. — 
His earthly doom was finally sealed ! His earthly sands had run 
out ! He obeyed the mandate to join the majority — cib'dt aclplures 
— and was gathered to his fathers in the prime of life — " ere his 
eye was dim or his natural force abated." Tlie gold was refined 
and the crucible was broken ! The toil-worn body was lain in the 
" narrow house appointed for all living" that the soul might es- 
cape into life. " The mortal cerements have been burst and the 
winged child is born into the true life — the life of eternity." '*' Af- 
ter life's fitful fever, he sleeps well." 

" How sleep the brave who sink to rest, 
By all their Country's wishes blest ! 
When Spring, with dewy finders cold. 
Returns to deck their hallowed mould , 
She there shall dress a sweeter sod, 
Than fancy's feet have ever trod. 

By fairy hands, their knell is rung, 
By forms unseen their dirge is sung, 
Their Honor comes, a pilgrim gray. 
To bless the turf that wraps their clay. 
And Freedom shall awhile repair, 
To dwell a weeping hermit there." 

Gentlemen of the General Assemhhj : 

The time already occupied ought to warn me that I am in dan- 
ger of over-tasking your patience. A few general observations, 
naturally suggested by the subject-matter of this address, demand 
brief notice, and then my duty to those, who have honored me by 
their invitation and with their patient attention, is fulfilled. 

The State of Vermont, unlike the Old Thirteen, had no pre- 
vious colonial organization. No civil compact bound those in- 
habitants together who emigrated hither from the Colonies. But 



LIFE OF SETH WARNER. 23 

the ties of sympathy, strengthened by the menace and force of 
tyranny, prompted them to unite together for the safety and pro- 
motion of the common welfare. For this reason, as has been very 
properly contended, " every record and document and pamphlet 
relative to our early history is invested with peculiar importance as 
showing the manner of development from a state of nature to a 
well-organized and efficient government." 

A twelve month since, M. Vattemare, the distinguished founder 
of the system of International Literary and Scientific Exchanges, 
visited the capitol of Vermont. He there addressed the members 
of the General Assembly and proved, conclusively, that his pro- 
ject was eminently feasible, and would greatly tend to " promote 
the diffusion of knowledge and induce nations to be more firmly 
united in the bond of mutual good offices." At that time, the 
melancholy truth became widely kno'wn, that heretofore so little 
regard had been paid to the preservation of our most important 
documents, that not even the State Library contained a complete 
set of the published laws and journals of our Legislature I 

Now, this must appear to every thoughtful Vermonter to be a 
most humiliating fact; for the life of a free government is mainly 
dependant upon the ditTusion of intelligence. As, under our Con- 
stitution, all freemen are annually called upon to discharge re- 
sponsible duties, they sliould be provided with such subject-mat- 
ters of reflection as will prepare them for discharging those duties 
aright. There is no Appian path to mathematics and no royal 
road to political science. It is the imperativ^e duty of every citi- 
zen of a free government to become familiar witli the past and 
present history of his own country and his own State. This can 
not be done by intuition or miracle. He must be able to consult 
reliable authorities for this purpose, and must bear in constant re- 
membrance that the ark of political safety is entrusted to the cus- 
tody of every freeman. I reiterate no new truism when I say 
that he can best discharge his duty to his God and country who 
studies that he may obey the laws of both. 

A very foolish error has gained currency among the people 
about the necessity and value of antiquarian research. An an- 
tiquary is commonly regarded as an obtrusive and tedious old 
fellow who visits vou before breakfast and rummaijes over the 



24 MR. Houghton's address. 

old papers and letters which are stored away among the cob- webs 
of your garret — annoys you during the day with foolish stories con- 
cerning this book or that hero about which you feel no interest, and 
talks until midnight about some curious investigation under the 
supposition that he has imparted to you some of his superfluous 
enthusiasm. If, prior to his departure on the morrow, he gives 
an extempore lecture on patriotism, and undertakes to touch the 
nerve that runs through the pocket, he will probably be regaled 
with a hint or two corresponding in spirit with the doings of that 
celebrated club stationed in London, known the world over as the 
" Pickwick Club." That association recognized the principle of 
every member defraying his own travelling expenses, and could 
see no objection whatever to the members of the Society pursuing 
their inquiries, for any length of time, they pleased, upon the same 
terms ! It also acquiesced in all proposals to pay the postage of 
letters and the carriage of parcels ! 

Now, whether the antiquary is provocative of foolish mirth or 
not, is to liim of no importance. If he be a genuine antiquary, 
he will examine successive constitutions, laws and historical data, 
with a loftier purpose and to a more praise-worthy end than the 
winning of praise or the gratification of an idle curiosity. His 
mind will not be so much engrossed with the objects of the Pres- 
ent, but he will find sources of gratification in contemplating 
the history of the Past. And, thus attached to, and identified 
with, some comprehensive investigation, his time, his money, and 
his all, will be cheerfully devoted to a pursuit which, like Virtue, 
is apt to be its own reward. There is to him joy in seeking after 
wisdom : not that wisdom which enables him to become richer in 
gold or lands, to be powerful and influential among his fellow 
men, but joy in seeking wisdom for itself, wisdom to be wise. — 
Groping, perhaps, for awhile in the dark, he is, at last, able to trace 
to their origin, and through their various modifications, the institu- 
tions of the Past, and furnishes for himself and his country the safest 
means of comprehending the nature and tendency of existing sys- 
tems. 

A complete history of its own legislation, every State ought to 
possess. And that history should be placed within the reach of 
every freeman ; for, as has been well jemarked, " without the 



LIFE OF SETH WARNER. 25 

possession of such a history and a practical regard to the lessons it 
inculcates, legislation will be, at best, but a succession of experi- 
ments : and, as a necessary consequence, every operation of gov- 
ernment will be characterized with instability and want of wis- 
dom."* 

But the objects of this Society are not confined to the collection 
and preservation of the legislative and historical materials of Ver- 
mont. Its purposes are far more comprehensive. Those gentle- 
men who formed an Association ten years ago, and were, by a leg- 
islative enactment recognized as a body corporate and politic — 
actuated by an enlarged and elevated idea of the pursuits to which 
such a society ought to be devoted, — wisely decided that one of its 
purposes should be the collection and preservation of materials for 
the Natural History of the State. 

Man's duties have been very properly classified, as first reli- 
gious, then domestic, and then patriotic. I need not say that it is 
one of the patriotic duties of every Vermonter to advance, by all 
possible means, the grand projects which should absorb the public 
mind — whether, like the Geological Survey, they promote the de- 
velopment of the hidden wealth of the earth, or, like the present 
institution still in its infancy, tend to preserve from obscurity the 
character of our best men and rescue from oblivion the memorials 
or traditionary memory of important events. 

One of the means to secure this end, would be the establishment 
of a State Cabinet of Natural History, in which all the Indian 
relics extant could be preserved, and perfect specimens of miner- 
ology, botany, ornithology and zoology, could be arranged, which 
would, at once, suggest to the mind of every spectator, the partial- 
ity which the Creative Power has exhibited towards the valleys of 
Lake Champlain and Connecticut River. 

Moreover, it is all-important that such manuscripts and papers, 
as illustrate the civil or natural history of Vermont, should be 
preserved in a library easy of access at all seasons of the year. 
It is true that we cannot indulge in the hope of gathering such a 
library as the Bibliotheque du Roi in Paris, the Imperial Library 
at St, Petersburgh, or the Royal Library at Copenhagen. But 

•Vermont State Papers, p. 15. 



26 MR. HOUGHTON S ADDRESS. 

Still, a creditable beginning could easily be made. A library- 
could be formed here without great delay I doubt not, and with as 
much ease as Benjamin Franklin established the first American 
Library in Philadelphia, and which might be of as much practical 
utility as the more costly and extensive collections of other States. 
x-^The temples of the Gods, in the time of the Ptolemies, centuries 
ago, were crowded with choice and costly books : and, over the 
alcoves, was the inscription dear to every true scholar, " the med- 
icine of the mind," or, as otherwise translated, " the nourishment 
of the soul." If the mind, as is contended, be the seat of all the hap- 
piness that belongs to humanity, then under the halo of this heav- 
enly truth will the value of books more " fully and at large ap- 
pear." " There is one art," says Coleridge, " of which every 
man should be master, the art of reflection. If you are not a 
thinking man, to what purpose are you a man at all ?" But life 
being short, and work indispensable, few persons have time to be 
taught without libraries and cabinets. We must " read, mark 
and learn." Libraries and Cabinets of Natural History have 
very properly been denominated savings-banks in which one gen- 
eration deposites its earnings for the use of the next : and that 
adds something to the store and thus the fund rapidly increas- 
es. 

From the remarks already made, it will be obvious that the 
"Vermont Historical and Antiquarian Society" issues cards of 
invitation to a wide circle of guests. All, without distinction, are 
asked to come and take a part in advancing the cause of that Phi- 
losophy which teaches by fact : and to aid in rescuing from ob- 
livion every thing which relates to the past or present drama of 
the world. I repeat, what 1 have already said, that the object of 
this Association is " Man and Nature — whatever is or has been 
performed by the one or produced by the other." 

A few years ago a genuine Yankee, with scarcely money 
enough in his pocket to purchase drawing materials and lay in a 
store of provisions, pushed his boat into the waters of the Missis- 
sippi — he steers slovvly down the stream — gazes upon the banks 
on either side and sketches the " changing scenery, the virgin 
forest, the beetling cliffs, the spreading prairie, the Indian wigwam, 
the rising city, the deserted cabin, the wonders of art and nature 



LIFE OF SETH WARNER. 27 

along its banks, till, at last, he floats out vvith the stream into the 
Gulf that receives hitn as Eternity swallows time."* For three 
years the patient Banvard sails up and down the Father of Rivers, 
and labors on his work of love. And when the work was done, 
and the picture completed, myriads of admiring countrymen flock- 
ed to beiiold it. It is not strange that European curiosity should 
be excited to get a glimpse of a sketch of three thousand miles 
condensed into three ! ! 

I have alluded to this artistic triumph over difficulties because, 
to my mind, it seems to be a striking emblem of Civil and Natural 
History. 

In the mysterious economy of Providence, it often happens that 
the horn of plenty drops substantial " aid and comfort" in the laps 
of those who scorn the rucged heights of wisdom and love the 
paths of ignoble ease. It is one of the note-worthy characteristics 
of an earnest lover of science to seek and to attain valuable 
knowledge under a pressure of seemingly insurmountable difficul- 
ties. And how much soever the fact may have been regretted since 
Solomon announced that " much study was a weariness of the 
flesh," and that " much knowledge increaseth sorrow," it is a 
melancholy truth that all persons, having the inclination and in- 
tellectual power, have not tlie requisite pecuniary means to float 
up and down the stream of the past, and to survey and map down 
the wonders of art and nature which abound in its midst or cluster 
along its banks. 

But the antiquary has made the voyage, and on his own pages, 
as on a canvass, he has jotted down past events and completed his 
chart of the Stream of Time ! That is Civil History ! 

Neither have all persons the means of collecting and arranging 
the numberless specimens of wealth with which the animal, veg- 
etable and mineral kingdoms abound. But the natural historian 
takes the wings of the morning and flies to the uttermost parts of 
the sea and returns laden with the choicest products of every soil 
and zone. These he arranges so that the eye of the thoughtful en- 
quirer can behold, at a glance, of what wonderful materials the 
planet on which we live, move and have our being, is composed. 
This may be called Natural History. 

*Mr. Prime's Address before the Library Associalioa of Nevvuik, N. i. 
11 



28 Mu. Houghton's addkess. 

No matter what scientific bias controls the student, he is thus 
enabled to be the profitable spectator of a panoramic view of six 
thousand years ! We can sit down in the library and cabinet thus 
formed, and the moving canvass shall pass steadily and slowly in 
review before us. We shall thus familiarize ourselves with the 
past — become acquainted with the statesmen and heroes of an- 
tiquity and modern times — learn how this earth was constructed — 
keep our minds alive in the contemplation of the constantly in- 
creasing beauties and wonders of Art and Nature. 

And thus — 

" IVIiate'ei- we see, 
Whate'er we feel, shall tend to feed and nurse, 
By agency direct or indirect, 
Our faculties ; shall fix in calmer seats 
Of moral strength and raise to loftier heights 
Of divine love, our intellectual soul." 



APPENDIX. 



RiFTON, Vt., October 3, 1848. 
George F. Houghton, Esq., St. Albans, Vt. 

gjj^ . * * * * yonie years since, I noticed that great injustice had been 
done to the character of Seth Wakjjer by certain unintentional errors in existing 
history ; and, when in Boston in the year 1845, I called Dr. .T,\red Sparks' atten- 
tion to a passage in his Memoir of Ethan Allen calculated to lessen the conse- 
quence of Col. Warner with posterity. Alter some conversation in relation to 
Warner, he requested me to write a Memoir of Col. Warner tor his " American 
Biography." I told Dr. Sparks that 1 would make an effort to collect materials 
for such a work, and, if I should become unable to write, I would furnish him with 
the materials. 

After my return from Boston, I made efforts to collect the necessary materials, 
but was so unsuccessful that I abandoned the idea of writing the Memoir. But in 
the winter ot 1846-7 I fortunately found, among Mr. Henry Stevens' papers, such 
materials that I commenced writing the Memoir, and, having prepared it for the 
press, expected it would be published in the next volume of the American Biogra- 
phy, but, by the enclosed letter from Dr. Sparks, I found that work was discon- 
tinued. 

Being thus disappointed, I could not think of any mode in which the work could 
be published. I could not think of publishing it in a pamphlet, and it would make a 
volume too smalUo be thought of At length,! concluded to write something to be 
published with it, and commenced writing under the title " The Lite and Times of 
Thomas Chittenden, including the History of the Constitutions of Vermont." 
But 1 was soon admonished by the infirmities of age that I should not be able to 
collect the necessary materials and complete the work. At the same time, it for- 
tunately occurred to me that Dr. Sparks miglit permit his " Memoir of Ethan 
Allen" to be published with the Memoir of Seth Wakner, and in June last, I 
wrote to Dr. Sparks on tiie subject, and he generously complied with my wishes. 
Allen and Warner are named together, as the principal leaders of the Green 
Mountain Boys, by the present generation, and I think they will be gratified when 
they find the lives of the two distinguished patriots in the same volume. 

Very Respectfully, 
Your ob't serv't 

DANIEL CHIPM.\N. 



Note. — For the more perfect elucidation of several subjects to which allusion 
has been made in the foregoing adilress,ithas been thought advisable to re-publish, 
in an appendix, a few papers which cannot now be found in print and for wiiich I 
am chiefly indebted to the courtesy of Henrv Steve.vs, Esq., of Barnet, the inde- 
fatigable President of the " Vermont Historical and Antiquarian Society." 

Report of a Committee of Council about lands on the West side of 
Connecticnt River. 

PROVINCE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. 

To His Excellency John Wentworth, Esq., Captain General, Governor and Com- 
mander in Chief in and over His Majesty's Province of New Hampshire, in 
New England, and Vice Admiral of the same. 



30 APPENDIX. 

In Council August 16x11, 1771. 
May it please Your Excellency — 

In pursunncc of a vote of Council of the 20th December, 1768, appointing a 
Coniinitiee to draft a just representation of the grievances of more than a thousand 
grantees of land granted by the late Governor of this Province, with the advice 
of His Majesty's Council, on the West side of Connecticut river, in consequence 
of a petition of John VVendaul, Esq , their asent, and that the Committe exhibit 
a report to your Excellency in Council, we beg leave, upon faithful and mature ex- 
amination, to report as follows, viz : — 

First — That Benning Went worth, Esq., late Governor of this Province, by his 
commission, was authorized, and by instructions required, to trrant (with advice of 
CouncJi.) the unappropriated Crown lands in said Province, under certain reserva- 
tions and services to His Majesty's subjects. 

Secondly —That between the years 1749 and 17G-1, the petitioners, with many 
others, solicited and obtained grants of sundry tracts of lands Westward of Con- 
necticut Fliver to a line twenty miles East of Hudson's River of the aforesaid Gov- 
ernor, Benning Wentworth, Esq., with advice of Council, and under the Great 
Seal of this Province. 

That, by His Majesty's order in Council of 20tli .July, 1764, the jurisdiction of 
the district Westward of Connecticut River, the property of the soil ungranted, 
equally vested in the Crown under either provincial jurisdiction as we humbly pre- 
sume, was rescinded from the Province of New Hampshire and annexed to the 
Province of New York, unheard, unexpected, and witliout consciety of error or 
forll?iture, although extremely detrimental to the Province, and, unless relieved by 
His Majesty's most gracious clemency, will be entirely ruinous to the petitioners and 
others in like circumstances, who, with their numerous innocent, loyal and indus- 
trious families, must be reduced from hard-earned competence and quiet diligence, 
to all the horrors, disorders and desperations of unmerited extremest indigence ; for 
the petitioners alledge and (for them) too plainly prove that their grants under New 
Hampshire being perfected, they rested satisfied of their title to the premises as it 
■was never made a doubt by any peison in New England, or even suspected but that 
the jurisdiction of New Hampshire extended to a line twenty miles East of Hud- 
son's river. They, therefore, proceeded to remove themselves, their families, and all 
their property upon the premises, where for many years they peaceably pursued 
their laborious cultivations, complying with the terms of their patents and popula- 
ting an immense wilderness with usel'ul subjects. These lands, being tiien settled 
and improved, excited the cupidity of their neighbors, and in the year 17G3, or 
early in 1764, the desire to acquire, or rather to seize the New Hampshire well- 
cleared plantations, fi.'st broke tbith in the proclamation of Lieutenant Governor 
Golden, requiring a return of all those names, that did or should hold possession of 
any lands Westward of Connecticut River under the grant of New Hampshire, 
that they might be proceeded against according to law. Hereupon, surveyors were 
sent from New York, who, avowing the authority of that government, surveyed 
the premises, including the houses, barns, and every other valuable improvement of 
the petitioners, to grant them to other people, which was actually done by Mr. 
CoLDEN soon after the proclamation aforesaid was published. 

The petitioners waited on Mr. Colden, remonstrating to him the injury they 
suffered by the proceedings and the unprecedented barbarity of such divestment. 

But, they say, a day was appointed by the Lieutenant Governor to hear their 
claims in Council, and they were promised that grants should be suspended until 
that day. However, they experienced that grants were made previous thereto and 
all relief totally refused. 

Upon inquiry, it appeared that forty grants had actually passed of the premises 
■which were known, and,probably, many more, containing from two to twenty-seven 
thousand acres of the most fertile and best cultivated lands, possessed by the claim- 
ers under New Hampshire, and these grants made t > single persons of Mr. Col- 
den's own family connections or to officers, the largest tract not exceeding 
five or six grantees, under no services or conditions of settlement or 
cultivation except of quit rent, not even a reservation of pine timber for masts 
with which the country is well clothed. Tt is now reported that some of 
these grants have been altered, bearing a reservation of inast timber, and requiring 
some cultivation or settlement. Immediately the grantees under New York pro- 
ceeded to demand a relinquishment of the claims under New Hampshire, although 
settled, possessed, cultivated and built upon for ten to fourteen years. Letters were 



APPENDIX. 31 

sent wherein these new patentees menaced violence to some, actions of ejectment 
to others, proposing leases for ten to iouiteen years, at the rate of sixty bushels of 
wheat per annum tores'cry hundred acres ot land — others demanding three pounds 
York currency, equal to ihirty-lour shillings sterling per acre, to release the pos- 
sessors. Such exorbitances, cruelties and injustice, amounted to a total prohibi- 
tion. 

Whereupon, some were actually driven off from their possessions, others sued in 
action of ejectment and harassed through different Courts at a great distance, until 
tlie cost hnd swelled above their persona I estates, and then their |)ersons thrown into 
jail, [here to starve and rot until the remainder was satisfied, while their more mis- 
erable iamilies, ousted from their possessions, had the choice to starve in the wil- 
derness or rot and become prey to that law which had not protected them from the 
oppression of powerlul avarice. Some of these people were taken by tbe Sheriff', 
as trespassers, though residing upon nnti holding their lands granted by royal au- 
thority, under the seal of New Hampshire — their persons hurried to Albany jail 
and all bail refused. 

And when the trial came, in which they were to be ousted and, perhaps, fined for 
presuming a refusal to yield up their whole and honestly acquired estates to those 
who iiad unworthily obtained new grants of them undei New York, the patent un- 
der New Hampshire, upon which that title was professedly grounded, was not per- 
mitted to be given to the Jury in evidence. Upon which strange events, every 
case went against them. Indee J, it is a sure method, and by tlie like, there is not 
the least doubt but every other jjatent or grant may have the same fate. It was an 
admirable brevity, and e.xtremely facilitates an entire eradication of all property, 
unless sanctified by a grant under New York, at the enormous expense of ^^330 
sterling for a tract of si.K miles scjuare — which sum was actually paid by those few 
whose ability, co-operating with the distress of impending ruin, enabled and com- 
pelled them tinis unreasonably to purchase [leace and quiet possession of their own 
properly ; but had the patent or grant under New Hampshire been admitted to be 
given ill evidence to the Jury, yet the petitioners were reduced to the most extra- 
ordinary disadvantages, torn away from their friends and families from sixty to 
eighty miles, confined in a loathsome jail, bail refused upon a civil process, their lit- 
tle monies wasted, without a friend to protect or lawyer to advise and direct them. 
Thus to have a trial at law for all the property they had on earth, before a Court and 
by a Jury, in efit?ct, interested in their defeat, opposed by the most ingenious and 
weighty lawyers who had almost universally, directly orundercover of other names, 
been shrewdly made grantees untier New York &. located upon these desirable farms 
under such untoward circumstances, the event required no divination to foresee, and 
accordingly your petitioners sufFered , and, being poor people and strangers, sunk un- 
der the frowns of Government, and interest, tbey could neither sustam the cost of 
an appeal, nor procure bondsmen to respond the event. 

Thus insurmountably oppressed, their adversaries cautiously avoided laying their 
actions at such a sum asjustities an appeal to His Majesty in Council, and co.ise- 
quently foreclosed that only sure and just relief. Having thus stated the facts as 
they have been strongly proved to us, it now^ remains that some observations be of- 
fered, which we humbly presume will recommend the petitioners to an establish- 
ment in their property, and this Province to His Majesty's most gracious conde- 
scension and favor in restoring to them a district, so essential totheir welfare, con- 
tiguous to, and otherwise convenient and desirable for the settlement prosperity, and 
orderly goverment of that people, now groaning under and heavily complainino- of 
every outrage, dissension, and wretched confusion, in a degree not known even in 
the hour of conquest. 

The Government of New York, evidently proceeding upon some title to these 
lands previous to His Majesty's order in Council 20th July, 1764, which expressly 
says " consideringa representation of Lords Commissioners for trade and planta- 
tions relative to the disputes that have some years since subsisted betw^een the 
Province of New York and New Hampshire, concerning the boundary line be- 
tween the two Provinces, His Majesty, taking the same into consideration, was 
pleased, with the advice of his Privy Council, to approve of what is therein pro- 
l)Osed,and doth accordingly hereby order, and declare the Western banks of Con- 
necticut river as far North as the 45th degree of Nortli latitude, to be the boundary 
line between the said Provinces." 

It may be answered, the Province of New Hatnpshire, by royal author ity, was 
to run from a point in Merrimack river due West until it met some other govern- 



32 appendix:. 

ment. The Province of Massachusetts and Connecticut claimed and possessed 
to a line of 20 miles distance East from Hudson'sriver, and asthe Eastern bounda- 
ries of New York were not determined by royal nnthority, hy public claim, or by 
acts of jurisdiction, or even by common popular supposition, further Eastward than 
the said 20 miles line, it was surely the duly ol this Province to extend its juris- 
diction thereto. in obedience to His Majesty's commission. We are further sup- 
ported herein by His lat? Majesty's instructions to Ben.ning WexNTWorth, Esq., 
Governor of this Province, upon a report of the Lords of the Council, 2^th Au- 
gust, 1744, requiring him to move the Assembly to provide for and support the 
garrison called Fort Dummer, situated on the vVest side of Connecticut river, or 
in default, the district adjoinino; should be granted to the Massachusetts Bay. 
They could with reason be required to maintain a Fort no longer within their 
jurisdiction ; accordingly it wrss proposed to the Assembly, who disapproving the 
situation, refused and were di-^soived. The next Assembly concerted and made 
proper grants for its support, which monies, with other instances of obedience to 
the royal requisitions, this Province is now payinir interest tor, and has a tax of 
three years yet unexpired to reimburse. This, of itself, cannot fail to ascertain the 
jurisdiction to New Flampshire Province to the royal decree in )7G4. In a report 
of His Majesty's Attorney and Solicitor General, 14ih August, 1752, it is said that 
sixty thousand acres of land on the Western side of Connecticut river, called equiv- 
alent land, by the determination of the boinidnry line in 1738, is become a part of 
New Jlampshire, and the district have reported it part of the land the petitioners 
complain ol being ousted troin. 

These we presume are the highest and fully sufiicient authority that the case can 
require, or admit, in favor of New Hampshire, and perfectly conclusive in support 
of the petitioners' claims of property, but n-e find it most particularly justified by 
the treaty between the commissaries of Massachusetts Bay and New York, held 
at New Haven in the year 1767 in consequence ot His Majesty's represemation 
officially signified by the Right Honorable the Earl of Shelburn. In that treaty, 
the Commissaries ibr New York proposed aline, after many interme- 
diate proposals, about thirty-seven miles West of Connecticut River, to 
be the boundary line between those two Provinces ; wherefore we con- 
clude that, in their own opinion. New Hampshire did extend to the same line, be- 
fore the decree of 1761 had altered it. for it is plain beyond a doubt, that every rea- 
son, in behalf of the iVIassachuseits Bay having this line, is much stronger in favor 
of New Hampshire, and consequently that the grants to the petitioners, by the Gov- 
ernor and inider the Seal of New Hampshire, are valid and legally convey a legal 
title to the premises which no alteration of jurisdiction can abrogate or nullify. 
We have purposely neplected considering the stale pretence of claim under the Duke 
of York's patent — that title being universally supposed to be merged in the Crown. 
If this is waved, yet it is surely obsolete and vacant liom non use--an absurrlity itself. 
If not, and that patent is still a private and valid existence it equally includes more 
than half the patent to the Councilor Plymouth, and can operate to the removal 
of at least half a million of British subjects, after near a century of quiet posses- 
sio:i. 

An idea, so repugnant to the civil law (the common law knows notiiing of set- 
tling new countries) to good policy, to common justice, and even to common sense 
itself, that we forbear to enlarge our report with the abundant refutations that title 
unalienably suffocates itself with, as this Province has not been informed of the 
cause that occasioncl the defalcation of so large and valuable a district, now never 
more cited to defend themselves, nor were in the least appraised thereof until the 
arrival of liis Majesty's orders in Council, and to this day are entirely rtaloss 
therein, it is impossible to enter fully into our justification or properly to repre- 
sent thereon to your Excellency in Council, but as some representations alone 
would have occasioned a measure so grievous to a loyal Province, and so uncom- 
monly replete with eventual injury and distress to a numerous body of His Majes- 
ty's subjects we would hereby confute such things as have occurred during our in- 
quiry into the petition. 

It has been suggested that Lieut. Gov. Colden had represented the inconvenience 
of this district appertaining to Npw Hampshire, and that for distance and situation 
it could never be well governed but in New Vork,ol which the inhabitants vvere 
very desirous. It is with great relucttmce we find it our duty to contradict such as- 
sertions. The district in question is nearer Portsmouth ihan New York, from 
sixty to three hundred and twenty miles, and it is evident that the nearer an Es- 
tate is to the Capital of its Government, the more convenient, especially in Amer- 



j\rpENDix. 33 

ica where, upon most occasions of law, recourse niuslbehad to the Capital where all 
appeals are heard, ar.d which, in the present extent of JSew York, is almost im- 
possible, at least it must be rumous fur liom many parts ot the districts taken 
ort' from New Hampshire, jVlassachiisetts, ;ind Comu'Cticut, in which Provinces 
there is no law to conduct a prisoner through them under a precept issued in any 
other, c nsequently these poor people are deprived of this Court and the Court of 
Chancery in said Province, unless they liavel, without the said limits ol New Eng- 
land, a journey of at least five hundred miles, which in time and expense would 
swallow almost any Americtin farmer's Estates, and, under law and justice, the 
greatest violence and mischief to fiiui, and here it is worthy ot observation, the 
bounds proposed, viz: the Western banks of Connecticut river, which we are told 
was represented to bear a North and South course into the Country, whereas it ap- 
pears by a survey of Samuel Holland, Surveyor General of the Northern district 
of America, taken otficially and without the intervention of the parties, though a 
fact well known for twenty years past, that the course of said river is for many 
miles East and West, and in many places to the South of East, in so much that 
for more than five eighths of the river, there is no West nor East banks and, there- 
fore, no bounds that can be known. Besides this, in the Spring and upon freshets, 
the river dilates more than a mile in many places, upon which, as being the most 
fertile, there are tiie best farms and most inhabitants, and liy this means are in 
New Hamijshire half the year, rind the other half in New York. As to the in- 
liabitants preferring to be in New York, their continual petitions, both here and in 
the public offices at home, their Agents in England appointed to solicit their res- 
toration to New Hampshire and the manifold grievances they daily suHi?rand com- 
plain of in that Province, testify to the contrary beyond a volume of representations, 
nor can we imagine with what spirit it could be ofiered, or how any person could 
presume to utter such gross andpalpuhle fictions, which we humbly conceive are 
detrimenlal to His Majesty's service, by causing a mutilation of a small Province, 
at best but scarcely able to support the government, nithoucrh from the beginning 
to this day, both in war and peace, they have approved themselves faithful and loy- 
al subjects to the King, and who, by their blood and treasure, defended this very 
territory from the enemy, annexing it to the Province of New York, already of 
immense e.xient and opulence, who, neither in the last war dare defend it from the 
savages, nor in the present peace give the strongest testimonies of veneration and 
obedience to the laws, except the receding from an agreement to distress the Brit- 
ish commerce when it was no longer tenable can be called an adequate renovation, 
and an all-meritorious obliteration of their former conduct. 

It is also said that Mr. Colden represented that the grants under New Hamp- 
shire were clandestinely obtained by enormous fees, and that a man, in no better 
appearance than a common pedler, tiavelled through New York and New Jersey, 
offering for sale many townships. The first part of this calumny, Mr. Colden 
knows, is false. It is contrived to injure the Governorand Council of New Hamp- 
shire. 1 he grants were made in Council, and recorded in the Secretary's office, 
whereto all persons have uninterrupted and open acess, with a full right to demand 
copies of record, which was never yet denied to any one. 

It is, therefore, plain that these grants were not made in the least clandestinely, 
neither could they be in the very nature of the thing. Therefore, this assertion is 
highly unjust, untrue and injurious to His Majesty's Council of New Hampshire. 
As to theenoimous iees insinuated, wecan onlysay they are unknown to, and un- 
participated by, the Council, and that we believe it might be proved that Mr. 
Wentworth did not receive more than £30 sterling for passing a patent of those 
very townships, which we know, after the decree of J764, the sa'tne grantees were 
for each township compelled to pay, at New York, three hundred and thirty pounds 
Sterling, to obtain, notwithstandins they had performed all the conditions in the 
patent under New Hampshire. We are surprised at the nugationness of his as- 
serting that a man of no better appearauce than a pedler ofiered to sell many town- 
ships. Beitso. We justly may suspect that such a person had no right to them, 
or may it not be reasonably appreliended that some such tool was employed merely 
to defame and degrade the government of New Hampshire ? 

Seeing that even Mr. Colden presumed to lay such groundless petitions before 
His Majesty's Ministers of State, though trom his present rank and appearance so 
highly remote from the pedler, we heartily wish we were not thus called upon to 
be jealous of either, but had these grants been obtained clandestinelv, and at enor- 
inous expense, how could a poor pedler-iike man have acquired them ? The absurd- 
ity and malice of the anecdote are equal and evident. 



34 APPENDIX. 

We are nlso cnsunlly informed that it was by him represented that officers would 
not locate in New Hampshire. If it was true, it might have been our mistbrtune, 
but by no means a matter oi accusation or criminuliiy. Kut the fact is otherwise; 
many officers did and do daily locale in New Hampshire, and it niigiit be more 
reasonably complained of on our side that these did not claim in New York. Yet 
this is not all the insidious, cruel secret. It was sugj^ested to many officers, and 
other peopL- of respectable rank, who had obtained the royal mandamus for grants 
of land, that they might locate on cultivated tracts of the New Hampshire settlers, 
which were rendered valuable by their labors. Hy this means, many, not knowing 
the injustice of the case, did locate upon the premises, which, undoubtedly, an- 
swered the purposes ot those who wished to have the poor settlers ousted under the 
misused names and countenance of the Royal Proclamation. These being all the 
matter of complaint against New Hampshire prefierred by Mr. Golden that have 
been suggested to us, and the Province having had no official or other citation, nor 
the least notice df these or any other complaints against their jurisdiction on the 
premises, belore the arrival of His Majesty's orders in Council of 17G4, whereby 
they were deprived of this district, we beg leave further to represent that the unex- 
pected decree obtained exparte, and without a hearmg of New Hampshire, as was 
formerly granted in a similar dispute with Massachusetts Bay, and isnow in agita- 
tion between New York and New Jersey, and between ]Sew York and Massa- 
chusetts Bay, though imineiliately obeyed with the utmost minute punctuality. — 
Yet it conveyed the greatest surprise and grief through the Province, not only the 
loss tliey sustained of a country maintained and defended by their men and money 
as part of the Province by express command of his late Majesty, but more especial- 
ly that it appeared as a censure inflicted for misconduct they know not to have in- 
curred, and without an opportunity to vindicate themselves, whereby many inno- 
cent subjects, the i)etitioners are involved in the most distressful circumstances, 
far more to be regretted and marked with infinitely greater calamity than the 
Canadians, whom they assisted to conquer, were subjected to, by the change of 
government that ensued, under which they were mercifully quieted in their posses- 
sions, while the petitioners complain and lament that they are disseized and eject- 
ed solely under the pretence of an alteration in the boundary line ot the two Prov- 
inces. 

But as the petitioners were now excluded from this Province, the Council enter- 
tained the greatest reluctance to hear their petition, nor were prevailed upon until 
through repeated representations that the grievances complained of were in some 
degree innocently occasioned by their official advice, and that the event extremely 
affected the honor and prosperity of the Province which in duty to their Majesty 
and faithfulness to their fellow subjects they are bound to pursue. 

From the same motives, we have delayed returning our report daily hoping that 
the petitioners would be relieved, and that their petitions would be laid before His 
Majesty, from whose paternal care of his remotest subjects the most solid relief 
will undoubtedly result. 

We, therefore, beg leave to report as before expressed, and that our humble ad- 
dress be presented to His Majesty representating the injury sustained by his loyal 
and obedient Province of New Hampshire by the alteration of the boundary line 
of said Province in favor of the Province of New York, also of the sufierings re- 
sulting to many thousands of His Majesty's good subjects, thereby most humbly 
praying that His Majesty will be graciously pleased to restore and re-annex the 
premises to this Province, which event, we humbly conceive, will give peace and 
relief to the petitioners, and highly promote population and improvement of that 
district, facilitate and augment the revenue of quit rent, and preserve the pine tim- 
ber fit for masts, accommodate the inhabitants in the mode, situation and distance 
of their provincial eovernment and be, in every other view and tendency, a blessing 
to that country and plant an everlasting gratitude for such an instance of the Royal 
benignity of His Majesty's most happy government. 

All which is humbly submitted to your Excellency in Council, by 

DANIEL PIERCE, 

GEORGE .lAFFREY, [ Committee. 

DANIEL ROGERS, 



APPE^■DIx. 36 

PROVINCE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. 

In Council 16th August, 1771. 

The foregoing report having been read, voted and res:lved that the same be ac- 
cepted and presented lo His E.\cellency the Governor, praying His Excellency 
will be pleased to transmit the same to be laid before His Majesty, humbly im- 
ploring the Royal condescension to re-annex the district on the West side of Con- 
necticut river taken from this Province and added to the Province of New York, 
by His Majesty's order in Council, in the year 1764, and that His Excellency will 
be pleased to recommend the same, being for His Majesty's service and for the 
just benefit of this Province by such further explanations and observations thereon 
as to His Excellency shall seem proper and just. 

THEODORE ATKINSON, Sed'y. 



Copy of a Letter from the Widow of Col. Setfc Warner to^r. 
William Samuel Johnsou. 

, Woodbury, October 8th, 1786. 

Honored Sir: — Though I am unacquainted with your person, yet being ac- 
quainted with your character, I am emboldened to request your honor to take the 
care of a memorial herewith sent.begging the favor of you to take the charge therof, 
and lay the same before the honorable (Jongress. Though I am poor and needy, 
the thing did not originate in my breast ; but the officers, and those acquainted 
with Col. Warner's conduct in the last war, urged me to make the trial, and even 
ofTered to wait on me to Congress for that purpose. But my poverty prevents me 
from making such a journey, together with the uncertainty of obtaining a hearing. 
1 seek not for great things, but should be glad to have a sufficiency to educate my 
fatherless children, so that they may not be contemptible among the human race. 
1 am. Honored Sir, 

an unknown, disconsolate widow, 

ESTHER WARNER. 
To William Samuel Johnson, Esq. 



I 



Mrs. Esther Warner's Petition to Congress. 

To the Honorable the President and 31embers of the Congress of the United 
States of America, now assembled at the City and State of New York : 
The petition of Esther Warner, widow and relict of Colonel Seth Warner, 
formerly of Bennington, in the State of Vermont, more lately of Woodbury, in 
the State of Connecticut, humbly sheweth : That Colonel Warner, early in the 
contest of America with Great Britain, for the maintaining of their natural rights, 
in opposition to British oppression and tyranny, took an active part previous lo the 
Honorable Congress' appointing him to the command of a regiment ; and so dis- 
tinguished himself by his zeal and heroic actions as that the Honorable Congress 
was pleased to honor him with the command of a regiment — whose conduct is 
particularly described in a recommendation by the Governor and principal inhab- 
itants of the State of Vermont and some in Connecticut, to the President of Con- 
gress, dated July 7th, A. D. 1786, herewith transmitted to your honors, some of 
which persons are officers in the regiment under his command, and are personally 
knowing to the facts therein related. The circumstances of your disconsolate pe- 
titioner as to her interest and circumstances in life will appear by certificate of 
Daniel Sherman, Judge of Probate, herewith transmitted, dated Oct. 3d, A. D. 
1786, by which your honors will see that your unhappy petitioner hath nothing to 
support herself and three children, only her own industry — having two sons and a 
daughter, two of which are unable to earn anything by their labor. Your petition- 
er would further represent to your honors that the Colonel was so taken up in the 
defence of the Country in the late war, that he wholly neglected his own interest, 
by means of which he lost much of his estate, as it lay chiefly in lands in the State 
of Vermont, for want of taking seasonable care thereof, and although your peti- 
tioner had a hard task in looking after the Colonel in 1«9 last sickness, as the Co- 



37 APPENDIX. 

lonel lay long confined, unable to help himself, and your petitioner had the unhap- 
piness to see her dear companion, as it were, die by inches, (as a mortification be- 
gan in his feet and by a slow progress proceeded up to his body, which continued 
}or months before it put an end to his valuable life.) Notwithstanding your peti- 
tioner had the chief care of looking after her dear companion, it yielded her some 
consolation that she had the opportunity of looking after the Colonel in his last 
sickness. Had it been the Colonel's fate to have fallen in battle, as many did that 
were engaged with him, your petitioner is informed that she should be entitled to 
receive some gratuity from your honors. 

Your petitioner, therefore, can but hope inasmuch as the death of her dear hus- 
band was in consequence of the wounds and hardships he received in his country's 
service in the late war, your honors will be graciously pleased to take her distress- 
ed circumstances into your wise consideration and grant her such a bounty as that 
she may be able to support herself and children, and give them such education as 
that they might not be contemptible among the human race. The which your pe- 
titioner is the more embolden to ask your honors, as she hath been informed your 
honors have, in some instances, been liberal to the posterity of those who have dis- 
tinguished themselves in their country's service in the late war — for which, as in 
duty bound, your unhappy petitioner shall ever pray. 

ESTHER WARNER. 

Dated at Woodbury the eighth day of October, A. D. 1786. 



[The following report of a Committee appointed by the General Assembly of the 
State of New York " to prepare a draft of a state of the just rights of this Colony 
(New York,) with respect to encroachments made on its Eastern boundary," is re- 
published from the Journal of the General Assembly of New York, 1773, pp. 90 — 
108, and presents the views entertained at that date by the authorities of the Colo- 
ny of New York. The facts and arguments are of great historical interest and 
the entire draught will abundantly compensate for the time spent in its perusal. It 
may be regarded as a Fer Contra to the report made in New Hampshire and also 
comprised in this Appendix.] 

A State of the Right of the Colony of New York, with respect to its Eastern 
boundary on Connecticut River, so far as concerns the late encroachments under 
the government of New Hampshire. 

In considering the objections which have been raised by the government of New 
Hampshire against the Eastern extent of this Colony, to the banks of Connecticut 
river, the pre-oceupancy of that river by the Dutch will be of moment. But wheth- 
er Capt. Hudson, who was the discoverer, acquired any right ; — whether he trans- 
ferred his pretensions to the States General ; — whether his conveyance was valid ; 
— or, finally, wfiether the Crown of England was not already interested with the 
country from the discoveries which had been made for the English by Sebastian 
Cabot, in the reign of King Henry the Vllth ? are questions foreign to our purpose ; 
since it is not the right, but the priority of possession of the Dutch, which is at 
present material, and to be supported. 

In the year 1609, Hudson first discovered the coast between .Martha's Vineyard 
and the first Virginia settlement ; and it then began to be minutely explored, and 
the bays, rivers and islands ascertained and distinguished. 

Hudson's river was again visited in 1610, and in the following years by Dutch 
ships, and their Colony advanced with such rapidity , that in 161'2 they had a town 
and Fort on the island of Manhattan's, now New York; and in 1615, another 
town and Fort at Aurania, now Albany, 160 miles up Hudson's river ; previous to 
which the States General, in 1614, granted a patent to some of their subjects with 
the privilege of an exclusive trade in this country, which they denominated New 
Netnerland. 

In 1623, they made a grant of the soil to the West India company ; who in the 
same year erected Fort Nassau, on the East side of Delaware Bay, and Fort Good 
Hope on Connecticut river ; and upwards of 3& miles from its mouth. Near to this 
ancient fortress, the remains of which are still to be seen, the town of Hartford hath 
since been built under Connecticut. 



APPENDIX. 38 

Fort Casimer, now called New-Castle, on the Delaware, they built in 1651: 
About (bur years afterwards they removed the Swedes, who were then settled in 
that part of the country, and thus became possessed of the vVest side of Delaware 
Bay, now called the three lower counties. 

There is not the least doubt but that the Dutch actually enjoyed the exclusive 
possession, trade and advantage of the whole Connecticut river, long before it had 
been approached by any English subject ; and had purchased almost all the lands 
on both sides of it from the natives. 

It is equally clear that they considered and claimed all the country to the West- 
ward of Connecticut river, and as far Northward as the river St. Lawrence, as part 
of their Colony of New Netherland; and we find it so laid down in all the ancient 
maps.* 

When the first war between England and Holland became inevitable. King 
Charles the Second, by letters patent, dated the 12th day of March, 1663 — 4, 
granted to his brother, the Duke of York, the tracts of country which compre- 
hended New York, to render this gift etlectual, before the war was proclaimed, 
a fleet and land force were sent out to remove the Dutch, and put the Duke in pos- 
session. 

The Dutch Governor Stuyvesant, in his letter dated the 2d day of September, 
1664, N. S. in answer to a letter from Governor Nicholls, in August preceding, 
demanding a surrender of the Forts and the countries possessed by the Dutch, un- 
der his command, denied the title of the King of Great 13ritain to this part of Amer- 
ica ; insisted on the rights of the States General as founded, not only on the first 
discovery, but on purchases from the native proprietors, and a long^, peaceful and 
uninterrupted possession ; and protested against every act of hostility as an in- 
fraction of the alliance and treaty of peace then subsisting between His Britannic 
Majesty and the States General. 

But however clear his opinion of the right of the Dutch, in no condition to de- 
fend it, he found hmiself obliged to submit to a superior power ; accordingly, on 
the 27th day of August, 1664, he surrendered all the country, which the Dutch then 
possessed, to King Charles the Second. 

A capitulation was previously agreed upon and granted for the security of the 
inhabitants: By the third article it is declared, That all the people shall continue 
free denizens, and shall enjoy their lands, houses and goods, wheresoever they are 
within this countiy, and dispose of them as they please. 

Afterwards the States General, by the treaty of Breda, in 1667, made a cession 
of this country to the Crown of England. 

During the succeeding war between the two nations, the Dutch, in 1673, 
re-conquered a part of it ; but by the definitive treaty of London, in 1674. 
they again surrendered, and finally yielded all their claim to the Crown of Eng- 
land. 

To remove any doubt of the validity of the Duke's title, either from the want of 
seizin in the Crown when it originated, or on account of the intermediate conquest 
by the Dutch, it was confirmed to his Royal Highness by further letters patent, 
dated the 29th day of June, 1674. 

The descriptive part in both grants is the same, and comprehends, among other 
lands, " All that island or islands commonly called Matawacks, or Long Island, 
" together with Hudson's river ; and all the land from the West side of the Con- 
" necticut river to the East side of Delaware Bay." 

Connecticut river extends into the country, upon a Northerly direction, beyond 
the 45th degree of North latitude, where we find its head. Hudson's river, in its 
general course, is nearly parallel to Connecticut river, and takes its rise a little to 
the Southward of that latitude. 

The Duke continued proprietor and chief governor of this province, till he as- 
cended the throne, when his right was merged in the royal authority. On his 



*See Ogilvy's America, published in 1671, and his map at page 168, Section 
Nievo Nederlandt, where the country to the Southward of the River St. Lawrence, 
is called Nova Belgica, five Niew Nederlandt,^nA the river itself is called Hio St. 
Lawrence, alias De Groote Eivier van Niexo Nederlandt. 

See also Blave's America, published in Amsterdam, in 1663, vol. xi, and his map 
inscribed Nova Belgica et Avglia Noiia. 

See also Johannis Van Kulen's Atlas. 



39 APPENDIX. 

abdication, it passed to King William, his successor, as lord proprietor, and roj'al 
sovereign. 

In the Duke of York's commissions to his several lieutenant governors, Major 
Edmond Andross.on the first day of July, 1764, and Col. Thomas Dongan, on the 
30th day ot September, 1662, among other descriptions of the boundary of this 
province, are expressly comprehended all the land from the West side of Connecti- 
cut river, to the East side of Delaware Bay. 

King William and Queen Mary, by their commission dated the 4th day of Jan- 
uary, in the first year of their reign, appointed Henry Slaughter to be governor of 
the province of New York, and the territories depending thereon ; the bounda- 
ries whereoi to the Connecticut river on the East, by the above and many other 
grants, commissions and public acts, were notorious. 

In all subsequent acts and commissions, this Colony is described by the same 
general words, tlie province of New York and the territories depending thereon; 
and its boundaries have never been altered by the government here or at 
home. 

Indeed, the Colony itself has been diminished by the Duke of York's trans- 
fer of that part of it which is now called New- Jersey to Lord Berkley, and 
Sir Philip Carteret. — By our agreement with Connecticut, in 1683, under mu- 
tual acts of legislature, subject to the royal approbation, — and by his Majesty's 
proclamation of the seventh day of October, 1763, establishing the hmits of Que- 
bec. 

The latter is reserved for the state of the rights of this Colony respecting the 
grants formerly made by the French government of Canada, of lands on Lake 
Champlain, and at and to the Southward of Crown Point. Nor need any thing 
here be said of the grant of New Jersey, it being of no moment in the present 
controvery. 

But it will be of use to explain the settlement with Connecticut, because it 
has been misconstrued to our prejudice, both by Massachusetts Bay and New 
Hampshire. 

And here it is necessary to premise, that the New England Colonies were found- 
ed on the grant of King James the first, to the council of Plymouth, dated the third 
day of November, in the 18th year of his reign, of the property and jurisdiction of 
the lands in America, (called New England) from forty to forty-eight degrees of 
North latitude. 

That it was the intention of the Crown that this right should not interfere with 
the claims and possessions of the Dutch in this country, which were undoubtedly 
well known in England, is evident from a recital to the following purpose, " Now 
Jbrasmuch as the King has been certainly given to understand by divers good sub- 
jects that have for these many years frequented the coasts and territories between 
the degrees of forty and forty-eight, that there are no other subjects of any Chris- 
tian King or State, or by any authority from their sovereign lord or princes, actual- 
ly in possession of any the said lands or precincts." And also from a proviso in 
these words, " Provided always, That the said lands, islands, orany of the prem- 
ises by the said letters patent intended or meant to be granted, were not then ac- 
tually possessed or inhabited by any other Christian power or State." 

Most of the Dutch Colony of New Netherland was, however, included within 
the bounds of this grant ; it was therefore void for the false suggestion, and if it 
had been valid, the possessions of the Dutch were at least excepted and excluded 
by the saving clause. 

The council of Plymouth by their deed dated the 19th day of March, in the 3d 
■year of the reign of King Charles the first, granted to Sir Henry Rosweil and oth- 
ers all lands from three miles Northward of any and every part of Merrimack 
river, to three miles Southward from any and every part of Charles river and of 
Massachusetts Bay, (East and West from sea to sea) with all islands on the East 
and Western coasts. 

Within this description also, part of the New-Netherlands is comprehend- 
ed. 

Sir Henry and his associates, having formed the design of planting a Colony, 
thus became invested with the right of soil ; but they still wanted the powers of 
jurisdiction or government, which the Council of Plymouth never pretended to 
transfer. 

To remedy this inconveniency a royal charter was obtained, dated the 4th 
./Jay of March, 1628—9, incorporating thejm by the name of the Governor and 



APPENDIX. 40 

company of the Massachusetts Bay, with ample jurisdiction and powers of govern- 
ment. 

But these grants are liable to both the above objections, they are null as founded 
upon a void patent, or at the best they cannot convey what was expressly excepted 
out of Plymouth patent by the proviso. 

If it should be pretended that the charter, from the liberal terms of the granting 
clause, invested a new right in aid of what was conveyed by the deed from the 
couiicil of Plymouth, it must be a satisfactory answer that it also includes an ex- 
press proviso, that if the lands thereby intended to be granted, were, at the time of 
the patent to the council ot Plymouth possessed or inhabited by any Christian 
prince or State, the grant, as to such part, should be utterly void. 

We need not enlarge on these objections. The Massachusetts charter was va- 
cated, and the title of that Colony now solely depends on their new charter of 1691 
as we shall have occasion more fully to observe in the sequel. Thus much is necessa- 
ry in this place place to enable us to explain 

THE CLAIM OF CONNECTICUT. 

This Colony was formed by a coalition of two distinct societies ; that of Hart- 
ford, consisting, according to Doctor Douglass, of some discontented people who 
removed from the Massachusetts Bay about the year 1638 ; and that of New-Ha- 
ven, planted the year after by emigrants from England, under the direction of Mr. 
Eton. 

These little Colonies were planted without the least right or authority from the 
Crown, nor had any legal government. Under a voluntary association they assum- 
ed the exercised jurisdiction after the model of the Massachusetts Bay. For some 
time the Dutch seem to have considered the people of Hartford as their tenants, 
and probably it was with their approbation and under their right that they first 
settled. 

We find from the Dutch records, that the following conditions were proposed to 
them in the year 1642. 



* " Conditiones a D. Directore Gen. Senalnys Novi Brigii, Dominis 
Weytingh atque Hill, Delagatis a uobili seiiatu Hartfordiensi, 
oblatae. 

Progro agro nostra Hartfordi.ensi annuo persolvent Prcepotentiss. D.D.or- 
dinhus Fmd Provinciarum helgicarum avt eoruin vicariss decimam Partem Re- 
ventus Asrorum turn aratro tuni ligone aliove cultorum medio ; Pomariis, Hor- 
tisjue oleribus dicatis Jugerurn Hollandium, non exceedentibus exceptis ; aut 
decimarum loco,pretium nobile postea consiituendum tarn diu quam diu possessorcs 
ejusdem agri futuri erunt." 

" Actum in Arce Amstelodamensi, in Novo Belgio die Julii, 9 Anno Christi, 
1642." 

We have no evidence that the English acceded to these proposals ; nor is it 
probable, considering their superior strength, that they ever did. On the contrary, 
they daily extended their possessions, and in 1643, the Colonies of the Massachu- 
sets Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut and New-Haven, entered into a league both 



*In English thus.-Conditions ofTered by the Director General of the States of New 
Netherland, to Messrs. Weyiing and Hill, delegates from the honorable Assembly 
of Hartford. 

They shall annually pay to their high Mightinesses the States General of the 
United Netherlands, or their deputies, for our territory at Hartford, the tenth part 
of the increase of their lands that are cultivated with the plow, spade, or any other 
means of cultivation ; excepting such orchards and gardens for raising pot-herbs 
as shall not exceed an acre of Hollan i measure ; or instead oi' the said tenth part, 
a suitable consideration hereafter to be paid as long as they shall possess the said 
territory. 

Done at the Fort in Amsterdam, in New-Netherland, the 9th day of July, in the 
year of Christ 1642. 



41 APPENDIX. 

against the Dutch and Indians, and grew so powerful as to meet shortly after upon 
a design of extirpating the former. The Massachusetts Bay, probably, from a sense 
of the impropriety of such an attempt without orders from England, declined the 
enterprise. 

The Dutch had long beheld the increasing power of their neighbors with the ut- 
most anxiety. 

Governor Stuyvesant, an active and faithful officer, as is abundantly proved by 
his letters remaining among the Dutch records, in one to the West India company, 
dated the 20th day of April, 1660, laments the desperate situation of the affairs of 
New Netherland. " Your honors (says he) imagine that the troubles in England 
" will prevent any attempt on these pai ts. Alas ! they are ten to one in number to 
" us, and are able without any assistance to deprive us of the country when they 
please." On the 29th of June in the same year, he informs them that the demands, 
encroachments and usurpations of the English, gave the people here great concern. 
" The right to both rivers (says he) by purchase and possession is our own without 
dispute." 

While the affairs were in this situation, the English of New Haven and Hartford 
thought it prudent to apply to the Crown lor a grant. 

In their petit ion they set forth that they had obtained their possessions partly by 
purchase and partly by conquest. 

King Charles the second, on their application by letters patent, dated the 23J 
day orAj»ril, 1662, granted them the Colony of Connecticut under the following 
description "Bounded on the East by Narraganset river, commonly called Nar- 
" ragaiiset Bay, where the said river falleth into the sea ; and on the North by the 
" line of the Massachusetts plantation ; and on the South by the sea, and in lon- 
" gitude as the line of the Massachusetts Colony, running from East to West ; that 
" is to say, from the said Narraganset Bay on the East, to the South sea on the 
" West part." 

This being a Crown grant, on the suit and petition of the grantees, is to be 
taken most beneticially lor the King. The descriptive words, and the intention 
of the grant, will, in legal construction, be satisfied by giving the Colony the same 
length as the Massachusetts Bay ; and it is plain, both from the recital and the 
saving clause in the Plymouth Patent, on which the Massachusetts title was found- 
ed, that the latter could not, in any sense, extend to the Westward of Connecticut 
river. 

It was understood in England in this light, and that it did not interfere with the 
Dutch Colony of New Netherland ; for within only two years afterwards King 
Charles the Second, expressly granted all the country to the Westward of Con- 
necticut River to the Duke of York ; and that this grant was particnlarly designed 
to include the Dutch possessions, seems manifest from the circumstances which ac- 
companied it. No sooner had it passed the great seal than an armament was 
equipped to subdue the Dutch, and the conmiand given to Col. Nicholls, who came 
over both in quality of general of the expedition, and lieutenant governor under 
the Duke. 

Governor Nicholls accordingly asserted his Royal highness' right to the country 
on the West side of Connecticut river, which immediately gave rise to a controver- 
sy between him and the corporation of Connecticut ; but he thought it prudent to 
terminate it by an amicable negotiation. He found them already possessed of 
Greenwich and Stanford, two towns within 20 miles of Hudson's river ; and that 
they had several other settlements not much more distant. His government was 
feeble, and chiefly consisted of the Dutch, upon whose attachment he had no rea- 
son to depend ; and he foresaw the greatest dLtiiculties if he should attempt to bring 
the Connecticut planters under subjection by force. Besides, when lands were of 
little value, it seemed more eligible to secure the friendship than to excite the re- 
sentment and hatred of a powerful neiahbor- On these principles he recommended 
it to the Duke to relax from his rights, and to yield to them the part they then occu- 
pied. Such being his sentiments, a fruitless attempt was made for establishing a 
boundary between New York and Connecticut, in the first year of his administra- 
tion. The proceedings and the mistakes so prejudicial to the Duke, into which he 
was drawn upon that occasion, as well as several of his letters to his Royal High- 
ness, plainly prove that he had a very incompetent knowledge of the geography of 
the country, or of the rights with which he was intrusted. However, a final com- 
pact took place between the two Colonies, in the year 1683, when their respective 
commissioners agreed that a twenty mile line from Hudson's river should, for the 
future, become the partition between the Duke's territories and Connecticut ; but 



Ari'KiNDIX. 42 

subject to the approbation ot the King and the Duke. This agreement was con- 
finned by King WiUiam, on the 20ih day of March, 1700. 

T hat the hne owed its foundation merely to prudential reasons, and was not 
grounded on the right of either Colony, is incontestible. The Duke claimed to 
Connecticut river, — Connecticut to the South sea. From pretensions so repugnant, 
there was no more room lo fix on a twenty mile line from Hudson's river as the 
boundary, than on a line at the distance ot 30, or 10, or 5 miles. A disposition to 
leave Connecticut in the possession of her actual settlements, for the sake of peace, 
preponderated, as was the true motive of the agreement. This is confirmed from 
the cession ot Greenwich and Stanford, in favor of Connecticut, though they were 
within the twenty miles. 

THE MASSACHUSETTS' CLAIM 

stands by no means in so respectable a light as that of Connecticut. 

We have already remarked, that the old charter was adjudged void. It was so de- 
termined in the high Court of Chancery in England, in 1684, and they submitted 
to the decree, and never took any measures to obtain a reversal ; nor can their pas- 
sivity be ascribed to the arbitrary councils of King Charles, since the revolution 
(which happened a few years atierwards) gave them the fairest opportunity to ob- 
tain redress, had they been injured : It seems therefore just to conclude, tfiat they 
were convinced of the detects of their former grant, and thought it more for their 
interest to solicit and accept of a new charter, which they accordingly procured on 
the Tth day of October, 1691. Thit province is here described as follows : — " All 
" that part of New England, m America, lying and extending from the great riv- 
" er, commonly called Memomack, or Merimack,on the North part; and from 
" three miles Northward of the said river to the Atlantic, or Western sea, or ocean, 
" on the South part ; and all the lands and hereditaments whatsoever, lying within 
" the limits aforesaid, e.'itendipg as far as the outermost points or promontories of 
"land called Cape Cod and Cape Mallabar, North and South, and in latitude, 
" breadth and in length and longitude, ot and within the breadth and compass afore- 
" said, throughout the main land there, from the said Atlantic, or Western sea or 
" ocean, on the East part, towards the South sea ; or Westward, as /ar as the Col- 
" onies of Rhode Island, Connecticut, and the Naraganset country."* 

These words {as far as) being in the case of grant ot the Crown on the suit of 
the party, in legal construction, carry the Massachusetts Bay Colony no further 
Westward than till it meets the Colony of Connecticut, and not to Connecticut 
river, and much less to the Westward of it. And it is worth a remark, that Con- 
necticut itself, at the time of the new charter, did not in the knowledge of the 
Crown, extend Westward of that river ; nor did it, in fact, till nine years afterwards, 
when the agreement of 1683 was rendered effectual by the royal approbation. — 
Besides, it is contrary to reason to suppose that King William and Queen 
Mary could possibly have intended, by that charter, to diminish, or grant away 
any part of New York, which was a royal Colony, under their own immediate 
government, without express mention thereof in the charter, and without any 
notification to Colonel Slaughter, the then Governor, that the Crown had grant- 
ed such a part of what was before within his jurisdiction, by their Majesty's conr- 
niission. 

Under circumstances so favorable to the rights of this Colony, we have great 
reason to complain of the unwarrantable encroachments under the authority of 
the government of the Massachusetts Bay, by which a valuable tract extending 
from Connecticut river, within 20 miles of Hudson's river, has been wrested firom 
us. 

Their conduct seems the more inexcusable, as they must have known that such 
encroachments were not only disrespectful to his Majesty's authority, and big with 
great mischiefs and disorders, but were highly injurious to private property, great 
part of these lands having anciently been granted to his Majesty's subjects, under 
the great seal of this Colony. 
So long ago as the year 1683, King James the Second, by letters patent, under 



* Note. This new grant recites that the old charter was vacated by a judgment 
in chancery, in Trinity term, 1684, and that the agents of the Colony had petition- 
ed to be incorporated by a new charter. 



a 



APl'ENDIX. 



that seal, grained to the Rensselaer family the Manor of Rensselaerwyck, extend- 
ing from Hudson's river, both on the East and West sides, 24 miles. 

Westenhook was f^ranted under the great seal of this province, on the 6th day 
of March, 1705, and its P'.astern bounds are about 30 miles from Hudson's 
river. 

Hosick was granted on the second day of June, 1688, and extends above 30 miles 
from the river. 

These several grant? cover the country the whole breadth of the Massachusetts 
claim, and not only ofi'er the highest evidence of the ancient right and jurisdiction 
of this Colony, as tar as the controversy respects the Massachusetts Bay, but au- 
thorize a remark of no small moment, to wit : That with respect to the lands in- 
cluded within such of those patents as are prior, in point of time, to the Massa- 
chusetts charter of 1691, the Crown had clearly parted with its right under the seal 
of New York ; and so iar had no estate left to be disposed of, or upon wliich that 
charter could have operated, had its boundaries been ever so unquestionable and 
comprehensive. 

As their example, and the agreement with Connecticut, are the only pleas which 
have ever been held up by the government of New Hampshire to justify their 
claims and encroachments, it seemed indispensably necessary to give a general idea 
of both. 

Nor ought it to pass unobserved, that the Colony of New York has a double title 
to the country on the Wood Creek, and on both sides of Lake Champlain ; 1st by the 
original grant to the Duke of York, which established Connecticut river as our 
ancient Eastern boundary, and which, without any alteration by the agreement 
with Connecticut, has continued such down to the present day. And 2dly, by the 
subjection of the five nations to the Crown of England by treaties with this gov- 
ernment. 

The submission of these nations took place so early as the year 1683, and is prov- 
ed by several treaties between them, Col. Dongan and our other Governors, which 
are preserved in the office of the Secretary for Indian affairs ; and at the trade and 
plantation office in England; and some of them in Mr. Colden's History of the 
five nations. 

That the country on Lake Champlain belonged originally to the five nations is 
proved by all the ancient maps,* where we find the lake called Lake Iroquois, (the 
French name for the five nations) or Mere des Iroquois, and the river (called by 
the French Sorell) which leads from the lake into the river St. Lawrence, Rivier 
des Iroquois, and the country about the Lake Irocisia. 

This government accordingly discovered an early attention to their rights in that 
part of the country. 

So long ago as the year 1696, a grant passed the great seal of this Colony to God- 
frey Dellious, for a tract of land extending from the North bounds of Saratoga 
(which lies on both sides of Hudson's river, about thirty miles North of the city of 
Albany) to the Rock Rosian, a station indisputable, and which is well known to 
lie on Lake Champlain, and above twenty miles to the Northward of Crown Point. 
This tract extends twelve miles East of Hudson's river, and the same distance East 
from Wood Creek and the waters to the Northward ; and it is worth a remark that 
such was its value and importance even that early day, that the legislature con- 
ceived the grant of it to be too great a favor for one subject, and passed a law in 
1699, repealing it as extravagant. 

The tract called Wallumscock, which reaches from the rear bounds.of Saragh- 
toga Eastwardly so as to be upwards of 23 miles to the Eastward of Hudson's river 
was also granted under our great seal, the 15th day of June, 1739. 

In short, the faithless encroachments of the French on Lake Champlain — their 
fortifying Crown Point and Ticonderoga — the many depredations they committed 
in concert with the savages in their alliance — the destruction of the frontier vil- 



*Vide Ogilvy's America, published in 1671, and the map at page 168, Sect. Niew 
Nederlandt ; and his account of Lake Iroquois (Champlain) and the river Iroquois, 
(Sorell) page 166. 

See also the map inscribed Nova Belgica et Anglia Nova, published in xi vol. 
Geographiae Blavianae,in 1662, page 35. 

And Johannis Van Keulen's Atlas, published at Amsterdam in 1720, 



APPENDIX. 44 

lages and settlements, and repeated massacres of the defenceless inhabitants, 
(which exhibited a scene of inexpressible horror and distress) have alone prevented 
the improvement and cultivation of this valuable part of the Colony. 

Having thus, in general, established the right and the ancient exercise of jurisdic- 
tion of this government to the lands Westward of Connecticut river, the way is 
open to consider the principles upon which 

The extraordinary claim of NEW-HAMPSHIRE is founded. 

The council of Plymouth, on the 19th day of March, 1621, granted to John Ma- 
son their Secretary, a tract of land from Nuemkeag to Merrimack river. In the 
year 1629, they granted him a tract of land between Merrimack and Piscataqua 
river, sixty miles up each river, to be bounded on the West by a line across from 
river to river. 

Both these grants were united and confirmed to Mr. Mason by a new grant 
from the council of Plymouth dated the 22d day of April, 1635, under the follow- 
ing description: — " A portion of main land in New England, from the middle of 
" Merrimack river to proceed Eastward along the sea coast to Cape Anne ; and 
" round about the same to Piscataqua harbor, a.nd so forward up within the river 
" Newickawanock, and to the furthest head thereof; and thence North- Westward 
"till sixty miles be finished from the first entrance of Piscataqua harbor ; and also 
" from Nuemkeag, through the river thereof, up into the land. West, sixty miles; 
" from which period to cross over land to the sixty miles end, accounted from Pis- 
"catEqua through the Newichawanock river, to the land North- Westward. And 
" also all the South half of the Isles of Shoals, together with all other islands and 
" iselets, as well inbayed as adjoining, laying abutting upon or near the premises, 
" within five leagues distance, and not otherwise granted by special name before 
" the 18th day of April, 1635, the said tract or portion of land to be called and dis- 
'■ tinguished by the name of New Hampshire." 

We have already observed that though the council of Plymouth claimed and 
granted the property, yet they never pretended to the right of delegating jurisdic- 
tion or the powers of government. 

To remedy this_ defect. King Charles, by letters patent dated the 19th day of 
August, 1635, confirmed to Mr. Mason this grant or tract called New-Hampshire, 
with powers of government and jurisdiction as in the palatinate or bishoprick of 
Durham. 

Thus was this little Colony established, comprehending no more than about twen- 
ty miles sea line in breadth, and sixty miles inland or in length. 

Mason died in the close of the year 1635, and by will devised New Hampshire 
to John Tuston (to be called Mason.) John dying before he came of age, it 
descended to his brother Robert Tuston Mason, who was not of age till 1650. 
During his minority the Massachusetts government took the Colony, without 
any authority from the proprietor of the (5rown, on its own disposal and protec- 
tion. 

Mason, after the restoration, petitioned King Charles the second for redress. — 
In 1675, a report, in favor of his title, was made by the Crown officers, and the 
King sent a mandatory letter on the subject to the Massachusetts Bay Govern- 
ment. Mr. Stoughton and Mr. Buckley being sent over as agents by that Colony 
to answer Mason's complaint, they, as attornies legally constituted by the Massa- 
chusetts Bay Colony, renounced and disclaimed all right to New Hampshire ; which 
being duly reportea, was confirmed by the King and privy council the 10th day of 
July, 1677. Rut it appears that while Massachusetts Bay exercised jurisdiction 
over that Colony, they made no scruple to grant away the lands ; for after their 
disclaimer, and the above mentioned order of the King in Council thereupon, all 
the grants they made beyond their boundary (to wit) three miles North of Merri- 
mack river, were vacated by an act of Assembly of the Massachusetts Bay passed 
in the year 1679. 

The Mason family, however clear their title, derived from it no advantage till 
the year 1748, when they recovered the land which remained vacant and unpa- 
tented by New Hampshire. The residue the occupants still retain.* 



*The present possesBors (says Doctor Douglass) have no other claim to their land 
than possession, and eome uncertain Indian deeds, a Doug. 22. 

13 



4& APPENDIX. 

This is a view of the title and limits of the Colony of New Hompshire as grant- 
ed to Mason. Instead of crossing Connecticut river it did not reach it by twenty 
miles, and the lands, between its West bounds and the river, remained vested in 
the Crown and extra-provincial, till the year 1742, 

That it remained vested in the Crown is incontestible, for although the council 
of Plymouth parcelled out part of their territories into several distinct Colonies 
or settlements, yet this tract was included in neither of them ; it therefore revert- 
ed to the Crown on the surrender of the Plymouth grant on the 7th day of June. 
1635. 

Indeed originally the government of the Massachusetts Bay insisted that their 
grant extended from three miles North of the Black Rock, where Merrimack river 
emptied itself into the sea, when the charter was granted, to three miles North of 
the fork or crotch, where the river first receives the name of Merrimack ; and from 
thence due West, which formed a paralellogram of upwards of fifty miles in 
breadth, to the Northward of their real boundary ; comprehending not only part of 
those lands, but a considerable portion of Mason's. 

This construction being thought unwarrantable, a contention arose between that 
province and New Hampshire, tor the determination of which commissioners were 
appointed, on the 3d day of April, 1737, under the great seal of Great Britain. From 
their decree both parties appealed. 

It is observable, that the question turned singly on the true place of beginning, 
and the course of the North boundary line of the Massachusetts Bay. Its length or 
termination, after striking the West bounds of Mason's grant, did not concern New 
Hampshire, nor could it have fallen under consideration. 

The appeal was heard before the King and council, on the 5th day of March., 
1739, and some time afterwards it was Hnally determined that the line should be- 
gin three miles North of the mouth of Merrimack river ; and that a parallel to 
iVlerrimack river siiould be continued from thence, as far as the Fluxure at Pan- 
tucket Falls ; and from a station three miles North of the Fluxure ; or Falls, the 
line should run West ten degrees North, by compass to the New York East boun- 
dary. 

The province of the Massachusetts Bay had formerly assumed jurisdiction over 
some land properly belonging to Connecticut. Several years before the above 
determination, to wit, in the year 1713, they gave Connecticut as an equivalent 
105,793 acres, which they represented as a part of their vacant province lands. It 
was comprised in four distinct parcels, one of which containing about 40,000 acres, 
was situate above Northfield, upon Connecticut river, and to the Northward of the 
line established as above mentioned, for the actual boundary of the Massachusetts 
Bay. 

An adjudication, so solemn and decisive, ought for ever to have extinguished all 
claimunder the Massachusetts Bay to the lands to theNorthwardof that boundary; 
but since the confirmation, by the Crown, of the ancient right of New York, orr 
occasion of the intrusions under New Hampshire, (in the manner hereafter related! 
a title is stirred up to those lands, on a pretence that they were originally a part of 
the Massachusetts Bay province. To justify this visionary claim, it is alledged, 
that at the time of submitting the dispute between the Massachusetts Bay and 
New Hampshire to commissioners, it was stipulated by these Colonies that the de- 
cision should not affect private property. 

But surely such a reservation can on no construction relate to any lands but what 
were controverted between, and claimed by both contracting parties ; and the gov- 
ernment of New Hampshire, at least, could iwt then have entertained an idea of a 
claim to the Westward of Mason's grant. To apply it, therefore, to what was' 
never within the limits of either, and to suppose that New York, which compre- 
hends it, and which wasno party to the stipulation, should be bound by it, is so ex- 
traordinary, that a further refutation must be unnecessary. 

To proceed : The old Colony of New Hampshire, or Mason's grant, had for ma- 
ny years been under the jurisdiction of the same governor as the Massachusetts" 
Bay, but by a distinct commission. 

While the dispute subsisted respecting their common boundary, the Assembly 
of New Hampshire pref(?rred a complaint to the King and council against their 
Governor, charging him with partiality towards his more profitable government of 
the Massachusetts Bay. The complaint appearing to be well grounded, a separate 
Governor for New Hampshire was appointed. 

On this occasion, a commission issued to Benning Went worth, Esq. the first 
Governor, dated the 3d day of July, in the 15th year of the reign of King George 



APPENDIX. 46 

the second ; and the old Colony of New Hampshire was greatly extended, so as 
to include a large district, which till then had remained extra-provincial and par- 
ticularly the lands from the West bounds of Mason's grant, to the West side oi' 
Connecticut river, the ancient boundary of the Colony of New York. 

It IS thus described in the commission: — " Bounded on the South side by a sim- 
" liar curved line, pursuing the course of Merrimack river, at three miles distance 
"on the North side thereof; beginning at the Atlantic ocean, and extending at a 
" point due North ot a place called Pantucket Falls, and by a straight line drawn 
" from thence due West across the said river, till it meets with our other govern- 
" ments; and bounded on the Soutii side by a line passing up through the mouth 
" of Piscataqua harbor, and up to the middle of the river, to the river of Newich- 
" wanock, part of which is now called Salmon Falls, and through the middle of the 
" same to the furthest head thereof, and from thence North two degrees Westerly 
" till one hundred and twenty miles be finished from the mouth of Piscataqua har- 
" boraforesaid, or until it meets with our other government." 

Hardly can it be conceived that a boundary so plainly described could have be- 
come an occasion of controversy. 

There was no room to suspect that the Crown intended to abridge any of the old 
Colonies in favor of the new; since without the most distant intimation of such a 
design, the limits of the adjoining governments are given as the extent of New 
Hampshire. 

But neither the clearest evidence of right, nor the most explicit directions of the 
royal commission, have proved sufficient to protect us from the encroachments of 
New Hampshire, nor the mischiefs and confusion which are inseparable trom 9. 
contention of this nature between two Colonies. 

Governor Wentworth was pleased to conclude, that because Connecticut and 
the Massachusetts Bay Colonies fiad carried their Western boundary within twenty 
miles of Hudson's river, that, therefore. New Hampshire must be entitled to the 
same license. 

His emissaries have since discovered another reason, which the Governor seems 
never to have entertained. They alledge 

That in the year 1744, an order was sent from the Crown to the Governor of New 
Hampshire, importing, that if that gnvernment did not provide for Fort Dummer, 
there would be a necessity lor annexing the Fort, with a suitable district of country, 
to the province of the Massachusetts bay. 

On this foundation are the boundaries of New York attempted to be circum- 
scribed. 

The argument drawn from our agreement with Connecticut is, it is conceived, 
fully refuted, by shewiiig,as we have already done, that the reasons and motives to 
which it is to be ascribed, were merely prudential and grounded on the claim or the 
bonndaries of neither Colony, one having contended for the South sea, and the 
other for Connecticut river. 

Whit then can be inferred from this treaty to the disadvantage of New York ? 
If from generosity or policy, or for the sake of peace, part of an estate should be 
ceded to a contentious or importunate neighbor, is it to be construed into a surrender 
and extinguishment of the whole ! 

With respect to the Massachusetts Bay, we liave shewn that they have no better 
title to the Westward of Connecticut river, than a possession acquired by force 
and intrusion , and which has proved the unhappy occasion of spilling the blood of 
the innocent, and terminated in despoiling a number of the inhabitanrsof this Col- 
ony of their rightful property. 

This dispute was agitated between our respective commissaries, at a late treaty 
at New Haven, 1767, and where the Massachusetts Bay had the assistance of Gov- 
ernor Hutchinson, one of their ablest men, and the most conversant in subjects of 
this nature ; and it is presumed that it must appear from a candid perusal of the 
proofs and arguments then ofiered, that the Eastern boundary of New York, upon 
Connecticut river, was clearly maintained. 

It is our misfortune that the lands, which have so long been the subject of con- 
tention with that province, are fully occupied.* Hence, though firmly persuaded 



* Upon these settlements one of their own historians makes the following candid 
remark, " A few years since, the General Assembly of the Massachusetts Bay 
" teas in the humor oj distributing the property of 7nuch vacant province land, 



47' APPENDIX. 

that when the merits of the case should be considered for a final adjudication, the 
right of this Colony to that boundary must be evident ; our commissaries from pa- 
cihc motives, from a respect to the report of the lords of trade and plantations and 
to his Majesty's gracious recommendation of an amicable settlement, conceded so 
far as to offer a twenty mile line as a boundary ; if his Majesty should think fit, by 
confirming it, to surrender his right of jurisdiction and property to so great an ex- 
tent of country, in favor of a charter government. 

But there is no necessity of enlarging upon this head, since it is apprehended that, 
independent of the considerations which it furnishes, a single reflection will of it- 
self be sufficient to expose the weakness of every argument whicli can be deduced 
from the examples of the Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut, to countenance a 
similar claim on the part of New Hampshire. 

And to place our remark in a stronger point of light, every thing contended for — 
that we agreed with the one, and sat down quiet under the intrusions of the other, 
of those Colonies, from a conviction that both had a clear right to a twenty mile 
line from Hudson's river, might safely be admitted ; and these concessions after all 
could not in the least advance the cause of New Hampshire. 

Lei it only be remembered that the Connecticut charter is prior by two years to 
the first establishment of this Colony ; that the Massachusetts original charter was 
much more ancient ; and that both claimed an extent to the South sea ; while, on 
the other hand, Mason's grant, the old Colony of New Hampshire, is limited to the 
precise length of sixty miles ; which did not approach Connecticut river within 
twenty miles ; and the commission to Governor Wentworth, by which it is en- 
larged, is so recent as the year 1742, and expressly bounds it (without specifying 
any dimensions) on his Majesty's other governments: Hence then arises a fatal 
distinction between the cases. Besides the important circumstance of boundary, 
priority of establishment is asserted on the side of the Massachusetts Bay and Con- 
necticut ; but with respect to New Hampshire in its present form, it is unquestion- 
ably in favor of New York. Upon the same principles, therefore, that the two for- 
mer Colonies claim beyond Connecticut river, ought New Hampshire to be confin- 
ed to its Western banks ; aiW thus, instead of being favorable to the pretensions of 
New Hampshire, by a parity of reason, as has so frequently been urged, do those 
cases, rightly considered, afiord a solid and decisive argument against the encroach- 
ments ol that government. 

As to the second objection, the order requiring New Hampshire to support Fort 
Pummer, it is necessary to explain the occasion of it. 

The Massachusetts Bay government before the determination of their dispute 
>with New Hampshire, and while they claimed the country to the Northward of the 
i)oundary then established, and on the East as well as West sides of Connecticut 
river, erected this Fort for the defence and protection of their Northern frontier, 
and as a barrier against the French and Indians of Canada. When they were re- 
stricted to their just limits, they became desirous to be eased of the charge of sup- 
porting it, and to lay the burthen upon their neighbors ; they, therefore, made a com- 
plaint in the year 1744, to the ministry, in which they were pleased to represent, 
that this Fort had fallen by the then late determination of their boundary, withiii 
the government of New Hampshire which ought to support it. An assertion ev- 
idently calculated to prejudice the rights of New York, and to justify their own 
encroachments to the Westward of Connecticut river. 

On this misrepresentation the order was procured, importing the sense of the 
Crown that New Hampshire ought to maintain Fort Dummer, or it would be- 



" perhaps in goodpolicy and foresight, to secure to the Massachusetts people, by 
" possession, the property of part of some controverted lands." 1 Doug. 424. 

That the settlements did not take place without opposition from New York, is 
admitted by the same author. " Anno 1726 isays he) some of the Massachusetts 
■"people, in settling Housatonick townships, were arrested to Albany Court, in an 
" action of trespass against a grant to some Dutchman , from my Lord Cornhury, 
" Governor of New York." 1 Doug. 417. 

In fact the government of New York considered and treated the settlements 
which were made in that part of the country, both under the Massachusetts Bay 
and New Hampshire, as acts of violence and encroachment; and by a public pro- 
clamation, dated the 28th day of July, 1753, commanded the sheriff of the County 
^f Albany to arrest the intruders, that they might be prosecuted and punished. 



APPENDIX. 48 

come necessary to annex it to Massachusetts Bay, with a suitable district of 
country. 

These being the facts, we observe 

That it is notorious that the government of New Hampshire paid no obedience 
to the order ; but the Fort, during the whole of that war, continued to be supported 
by the province of the Massachusetts Bay, and yet no land was added to that Col- 
onv,by way nf compensation, as the order intimated. 

From hence it is reascmable to conclude, not only that the government of New 
Hampshire was apprised that the Fort did not lie within their limits, and therefore 
gave themselves no concern about the order ; but that the mistake was discovered by 
the Crown, and that the Massachusetts Bay for that reason was never gratified by 
the addition of land they had reason to expect. Nor is it difficult to account for the 
mistake itself : the officer who framed the order must doubtless have apprehended 
that the Fort was erected on the East side of Connecticut river. A presumption 
which can only free it from the inconsistency to which it must otherwise be subject; 
while with this explanation nothing could have been more just and equitable ; for, 
as we have already observed, the Crown had but two years before extended the 
jurisdiction of New Hampshire over a district of extra-provincial lands on the East 
side of the river ; if that government therefore refused to follow the king's directions, 
there was no hardship in annexing the Fort, supposing it to lie on the East side of 
the river, with a suitable district of country on the same side, to the province of the 
Massachusetts Bay. 

This reasoning appears to be the more conclusive, because it cannot be con- 
ceived that the Crown could mean to abridge the limits of New York, on account 
of a Fort which they had never been required to support. 

Besides, if the order was capable of being construed in the latitude attempted, 
it could never have altered or impeached the rights of this Colony. It was an oc- 
casional instruction in the military line, in which our jurisdiction was not had in 
contemplation, in which we were not considered as parties, and which related to 
two different governments, and was procured ex parte, on the suggestion only of 
one of them. 

It is certain that a circumstance so unimportant made no impression on the late 
Governor Wentworth, whose station gave him the best opportunity of being ac- 
quainted with the means by which the order was procured, and the spirit with which 
it was dictated. 

It will appear that he clearly apprehended the nature of his commission ; that the 
Western extent of his province depended on the limits of New York ; and that, till 
they were made known to him, he must be at an utter loss for the exercise of his ju- 
risdiction. 

Almost from the date of his commission, till the year 1748, we were at war with 
Spain and France, and there was no room to think of the cultivation or improve- 
ment of the country. The French of Canada found us full employment on our 
frontiers which were continually harassed and destroyed. 

On the 17th day of November, 1749, Governor Wentworth apprized the Govp 
eminent of New York, that he was directed by the Crown to grant the unim- 
proved lands of New Hampshire; but that the war had prevented his progress 
therein. That the prospect of a general and lasting peace with the Indians had 
now encouraged people to apply for lands, and particularly for some townships 
in the Western part of his government, which would fall in the neighborhood of 
New York. He therefore transmitted a description of New Hampshire, as the 
King had determined it ; and desired to be informed how far North of Albany the 
Colony of New York extended, and how many miles to the Eastward of Hudson's 
river, to the Northward of Massachusetts line, that he might govern himself accord- 
ingly. 

This was behaving with prudence and candor ; and happy would it have been 
for New York, had he continued to be influenced by the same temper. 

His letter was communicated by the Governor to the council of .New York, on 
the 3d day of April, 1750, with the extract of Governor Wentworth's commission, 
expressing the boundaries of New Hampshire ; and his Excellency having re- 
quired their sentiments, they advised him to acquaint Governor Wentworth in an- 
swer to his inquiry, " That the province of New York is bounded Eastward by 
" Connecticut river, the letters patent from King Charles the second to the Duke 
" of York expressly granting all the lands from the West side of Connecticut river, 
" to the East side of Delaware Bay." 



49 APPENDIX. 

This advice was accordingly transmitted to Governor Wentwortli, by a letter of 
the 9th day of April, 1750 ; and one vifould think it must have proved satisfactory. 
He saw that the Colony of New York was limited by the original grant to Con- 
necticut river. He knew that his government was but lately established, and bound- 
ed upon the neighboring provinces ; but it seems his Excellency had no intention to 
give up the point so easily. He, theretore, in a letter to Governor Clinton, of the 
55th d^y of April, 1750, acquaints him, that the information he had received from 
his Excellency, that it was the opinion of his Majesty's council that Connecticut 
river is the Eastern boundary of New York government, would have been entirely 
satisfactory to him, had not the charter governments of Connecticut and Massachu- 
setts Bay extended their bounds many miles to the Westward of said river. That 
it being the opinion of his Majesty's council of that government, that New Hamp- 
shire had an equal right to claim the same extent of Western boundary ; he had 
ill consequence of their advice, before Governor Clinton's letter came to hand, 
granted one township due North of Massachusetts line, and by measurement 24 
miles East of the city of Albany. He concludes with these expressions. " Al- 
" though I am prohibited by his Majesty's commission to interfere with his other 
" government, yet it is presumed that I should strictly adhere to the limits therein ; 
" and I assure you that I am very far from desiring to make the least encroachment, 
" or set on foot any dispute on these points : It will, therefore, give me great salis- 
" faction if, at your leisure, you can inform me by what authority Connecticut and 
" the Massachusetts Bay governments claimed so far to the Westward as they have 
" settled ;; and in the mean time, I shall desist fi-om making any further grants, on 
" the Western frontier of my government, that may have the least probability of in- 
*' terfering with your government." 

This letter was communicated to the council of New York, on the 5th day of 
June 1750, who advised their governor, in answer to Mr. Wentworth's inquiry 
.by what authority Connecticut and Massachusetts Bay governments claimed so 
far to the Westward as they had settled! to acquaint him that the claim of the 
fColony of Connecticut is founded upon an agreement with this government on 
or about the year 1684 ; and that the Massachusetts' settlements, so far to the 
Westward, were made by intrusion ; and that it was probable that the township 
which he had lately granted, or some part of it, had already been granted by this 
.government. 

This advice was transmitted by letter from Mr. Clinton of the 6th day of June, 
1750, which concludes with this passage. " From the information I have, there is 
'•'reason to apprehend that the lands wiihin the township you have lately granted, 
" or part of them have been granted here. As my answer to your letter might 
" probably have furnished you with objections agamst any grant which might in- 
" terfere with this province, I am surprised that you did not wait till it came to hand 
" before you proceeded therein. If it is still in your power to recall the grant, your 
'' doing so will be but a piece of justice to this government, otherwise I shall think 
" myself obliged to send a representation of the matter to be laid before his Maj- 
"esty." 

Governor Wentworth's reply to this letter is dated the 22d day of June 1750; 
he informs Mr. Clinton, " That his Majesty's council of that Colony were unani- 
mously of opinion not to commence a dispute with the government of New York, 
respecting the extent of the Western boundary of New Hampshire, till his Majesty's 
pleasure sliould be further known ; and that they had advised, that he should on 
the part of New Hampshire, make a representation of the matter to his Majesty 
relying thai the same should be done on the part of New York ; and that whatever 
should be determined thereon, the government of New Hampshire would esteem 
fheir duty to acquiesce in, without further dispute, which he hoped would be satis- 
factory on that point." 

He then proceeds to an apology for granting the township mentioned in his for- 
mer letter ; intimating that it would not have been done, had Mr. Clinton's first let- 
ter arrived in time ; adding; this memorable sentence. " There is no possibiliiy of 
" vacating the grant, as you desire ; hut if it falls, by his Majesty's determination, 
" in the government of New York, it will be void of course." 

The council of New York, on the 24th day of July, 1750, approved of the expe- 
dient proposed by Mr. Wentworth ; further advising that it would be for the mu- 
tual advantage of both governments to exchange copies of each others represen- 
tations to his Majesty. And their opinion being communicated to Governor Went- 
worth by letter of the 25th day of July, 1750, this correspondence closed by Gover- 
nor Wentworth's answer of the 3d day of September following, informing Mr. 



Al'l'KNDIX. 50 

Clinton, tliat the council of New Hampshire approved of the proposal that the rep- 
resentations to the Crown should be exchanged, as it might contribute to the spee- 
dy determination of the controversy, without expense on either side ; promising 
to transmit Governor Clinton an authentic copy of his representation, as soon as 
it should be perfected. 

From this relation, it appears that the government of New York acted with all 
possible candor and uprightness towards New Hampshire. That they gave all the 
satisfaction ihat could be expected with respect to their right ; and ahhongh this 
was so clear and unexceptionable, cheerlully agreed to submit it to his Majesty's 
further determination. 

It is to be wished that as much could be said in favor of the late Governor 
Wentworth. After engaging to transmit a copy of his representation to Gov- 
ernor Clinton, he changed his resolation, and forwarded it privately, without 
any notice to this government. It was contained in a letter to the lords of trade, 
dated the 23d day of March, 1750—1, but it was not unJil the 22d day of De- 
cember 1752, thac our Colony agent, by their lordship's directions, obtained a 
copy. 

'The representation, on the part of New York, was approved of and entered 
upon the minutes of the eouncil, on the 18th day of October, 1751, and transmitted 
about the close of that year. 

Within two years afterwards, complaint was made to this government of the 
encroachments under New Hampshire, on the lands and possessions of the New 
York grantees. It seems that the claimants of the township which Mr. Went- 
worth confessed in his letter of the 25ih day of April, 1750, he had granted within 
24 miles East from Hudson's river, were attempting to avail themselves of that 
grant. 

Upon this occasion to maintain our jurisdiction, and prevent such encroach- 
ments for the future, the government of New York, on the 3Sth day of July, 1753, 
issued a proclamaticn for apprehending all persons, who should thereafter, under 
color of title from New Hampshire, take possession of lands' granted by this 
province. 

From this period the matter rested for some years ; the incursions of the In- 
dians immediately preceding the late war obstructing all new settlements, and 
the government of New York confiding that New Hampshire, after all thai 
had passed, after being so fully premonished of our right, and agreeing to 
submit the determination without further controversy to his Majesty, would 
not have ventured to grant any more of the lands in dispute, until a final decis- 
ion. 

How much they were disappointed in these reasonable expectations remains to- 
be shewn. But it would be improper to pass over in silence the claim of New 
Hampshire, as represented by Mr. Wentworth, since it may justly be concluded 
that if he had nothing substantial to offer in its support, it must be incapable of any 
vindication. 

He aims at restricting both the Eastern and Northern limits of this Colony . 

With respect to the Eastern boundary he relies-^ 

1st. On the settlement between New York and Connecticut, at twenty miles 
distance from Hudson's river. 

2d. He advances, as a fact, that the Massachusetts government have allowed 
New York to extend their claim also 20 miles East from that river, artfully repre- 
senting their setting those bounds to their encroachments, as an act of favor and in- 
dulgence, when he was fully apprized that the government of New York complain- 
ed of their possessing any of the country to the Westward of Connecticut river, as 
highly injurious. 

3d. To prejudice the Crown against New York, he observes, that one Rensselaer 
claims 24 miles square on each side of the river : that it is a tract sufficient for thir- 
ty-two townships, of six miles square each, and comprehends more good land thaw 
any other subject enjoys in his Majesty's dominions; and yet that Mr. Rensselaer 
has not thought fit to contend with the Massachusetts Bay for the 24 miles. This 
is a strange exaggeration ; the Rensselaer family are not indebted to the govern- 
ment of New York for their estate : they continue to enjoy it by an act of justice, 
and not of favor. It was originally a Dutch Colony of itself, granted to their an- 
cestors by the Dutch West India company, who held it as a part of New Nether- 
landt, under the States General. 

On the surrender, in 1664, their rights were secured to them, in common- with 
the rest of the inhabitants, by the before mentioned article of the capitulation 



61 AITEA'DIX. 

granted on the surrender ot the country, by Colonel Nicholls, the commander 
in chief under the Crown, and Lieutenant Governor undjr the Duke. The faith 
of government was pledged for their security ; and their estates were confirmed 
under the seal of this Colony, in the year 1685, not by the mere act of the pro- 
vincial Governor and council, but by an express order from King James the 
second. 

Nor, though immaterial, is it true that the lands are good in quality , they are in 
general very indifferent. Not that no subject has so much good land : The Penn, 
Baltimore, Fairfax and Granville families have much more. Nor that the Rens- 
selaer family have never contended against the encroachments of the Massachu- 
setts Bay ; for it is notorious that they have frequently solicited for the protection 
of government against those encroachments, and that more than once recourse has 
been had to arms, and blood been shed on that very account. 

4th. Governor Wentworth,inhis representation, further informs their lordships, 
that, presuming it would be his Majesty's pleasure that a North and South line 
should divide both the Massachusetts and New Hampshire from the government 
of New York, he had extended the Western boundary of New Hampshire as far 
West as the Massachusetts Bay had done theirs (that is) within 20 miles of Hud- 
son's river. 

This is again very uncandid. He puts New Hampshire upon the same foot- 
ing as the Massachusetts, although he must have known there was not the least 
similarity in the cases ; the Massachusetts government considering their first char- 
ter in 16'28-9,as of force at the time of the Duke's grant, and therefore restrictive 
of its limits ; but the King's commission which established New Hampshire in its 
present extent, being so recent as the year 1742. 

Nor had he the least right to presume that the Crown would diminish New York, 
to enlarge New Hampshire ; for which, it is conceived, no reason could possibly 
be assigned. Nor had he, as he asserted, extended the Western boundary of New 
Hampshire to a twenty mile line from Hudson's river. On the contrary, so far 
was he from having seized that part of the country, that he had just before solemn- 
ly assured Governor Clinton, in his letter of the 22d day of June, 1750, that he and 
his council were unanimously of opinion, not even to commence a dispute with this 
government, respecting the Western extent of New Hampshire, till his Majesty's 
pleasure should be further known : condescending, at the same time, to apologize 
to Governor Clinton , (who had threatened to complain of him to the King) for the 
grant of one township, by ascribing it to the want of timely information of the 
limitsof New York, and by telling him that though it was impossible to recall that 
grant, it would be void of course if his Majesty's determination should be in fa- 
vor of New York. 

&thly. In order to induce the Crown to abridge the Northern limits of New 
York, Governor Wentworth ventures upon this extraordinary assertion, (to wit) 
" It will be necessary to inform your lordships that the government of New York 
" was founded upon a grant made by the Crown to the Duke of York, and that 
" it was to commence at the sea, and run sixty miles North into the country, 
" which hne will cross Hudson's river, about twenty miles South of the city of 
" Albany." 

It is painful to remark, that in this passage Governor Wentworth pronounces as 
a fact, not only what was inconsistent with his own knowledge from the abstract 
of the Duke of York's grant, with which he had been furnished ; but what it was 
in every man's power to contradict by evidence which could not deceive ; the grant 
being on record both in England and New York. 

True it is that the limits of New York depend entirely upon that grant. Except 
with respect to New Jersey, Connecticut and Quebec, they have never suffered the 
least alteration, but remain the same ever since it became an English Colony ; all 
commissions and instructions from the Crown, presupposing the boundaries to be 
clearly established by that grant, and to be notorious. 

Does it contain a single word of Mr. Wentworth's description, (to wit) " Com' 
mencing at. the sea, and running sixty miles into the country ?" On the contrary, 
after descril)ing several tracts, it proceeds to grant Hudson's river, and all the land 
from the West side of Connecticut river to the Elast side of Delaware Bay, and 
clearly includes the country under consideration. 

This is the nature of the New Hampshire claim, recommended and enforced 
with every advantage by Governor Wentworth, its author, who best knew the 
reasons which gave rise to it, and the principles upon which it was founded ; and 



APPENDIX. 52 

it is submitted whether he has offered even the shadow of an argument in its sup- 
port. 

How then can his subsequent conduct towards New York be justified ? No 
sooner was the conquest of Canada completed, and security, by that means, estab- 
lished in this part ot America, than he reconciled it to himselt to lay aside all re- 
straint. 

The country to the Westward of Connecticut river became an inviting object 
to many, and while the Colony of New York, (bound by the agreeniens with 
New Hampshire and the appeal to the Crown,) thought itsell not at liberty to give 
them encouragement, Mr. Wentworth listened to applications from every quarter, 
and granted the lands without reserve. 

Before this government had the least intimation of his intentions, he had, in the 
course of three or four years, patented upwards of one hundred townships, of six 
railes square each, dispersed over the whole face of the country, from the West side 
of Connecticut river down to the very borders of Lake Chaniplain. 

But it was impossible such a plan could be executed without at length attracting 
the attention of this government ; and it was no sooner known than they published 
a proclamation, dated the 28th day of December, 1763, slating the title and bounds 
both of New Hampshire and New York, as well as the many grants which the 
former government had unwarrantably issued ; the attempts that had been made 
tosettle under those grants, and the impositions which had been practiced on the 
inhabitants here by the sales ot lands under the claim : To warn, therefore, the in- 
cautious from being longer deceived ; to assert the right, and lully to maintain the 
jurisdiction of this Colony, all civil officers were required to exercise their respec- 
tive jurisdictions and functions as far as the banks ot Connecticut river, the undoubt- 
ed Eastern limits of that part of the Colony. And the sheriff'of the County of Alba- 
ny, which then comprehended those lands, was enjoined to return to the comman- 
der in chief the names of all who, under the grant of New Hampshire, should hold 
the possession of any lands Westward of Connecticut river, that they might be 
proceeded against according to law. 

About this time. Governor VVentworth's grantees, not contented with the vacant 
lands they had wrongfully usurped, began to enlarge their views, and to execute 
the design of seizing the estates and possessions of the inhabitants who, for many 
years, had been quietly settled under the title of New York: It was, therefore, 
thought highly necessary to solicit the Crown ibr the determination of a controver- 
sy which had been so serious and alarming. 

Accordingly, on the 20th day of January 1764, the government of New^ York 
transmitted to the lords of trade a representation of the controversy, and of the pro- 
ceedings of New Hampshire, and its emissaries, and urged the necessity of his 
Majesty's interposition. 

The cause, soon after, upon the report of the lords of trade, came under the con- 
sideration of his Majesty in privy council, who was pleased on the 4th day of July 
following, to adjudge and determine '' The Western banks of the river Connecti- 
" cut, from where it enters the province of the Massachusetts Bay, as far North as the 
"45th degree of Northern latitude, to be the boundary line of the said two prov- 
" inces of New Hampshire and New York." And to enjoin and require the re- 
spective governors and commanders in chief of his Majesty's said province of New 
Hampshire and New York, and all others whom it might concern, to take notice 
thereof and govern themselves accordingly. 

That none might plead ignorance, the decree was soon after publicly notified by 
n proclamation of this government, inserted in the newspapers, and dispersed 
throughout the Northern parts of the Colony. 

The nature of this royal adjudication has been greatly misrepresented. 

In every question of boundary between two Colonies, the King, in privy council, 
exercises originaljurisdiction, on the principles of feodal sovereignty. There can 
be no other tribunal. 

The claims of New York and New Hampshire came judicially before his Maj- 
esty, by the authoritative acts of the governor and council of each, and by theirmu- 
tual agreement and consent. 

The question was not what bounds his Majesty would be pleased thereafter to 
establish between his two contending Colonies ; but what were then the just extent 
and jurisdiction of each of them respectively. 

The royal adjudication is accordingly expressed in terms which cannot be 
misconstrued ; not directing that Connecticut river shall become the boundary be- 



53 APPENDIX. 

tweeii the IWo Colonies ; but cleclai-ing the Western banks of that river to be the 
boundary. 

Tlience it follows that this is a royal adjudication, in the dernier resort, on the 
very point of right, in favor and confirmatory of the ancient jurisdiction of New 
York ; and not a regulation of convenience and policy, by which an accession is 
acquired to its original limits. 

Indeed, the latter cannot possibly be supposed. The occasion and nature 
of the appeal, as well as the clear and precise language of the decree, forbid 
it. 

Soon after it was proclaimed, on the solicitation of the inhabitants, and for the 
better administration of justice, two new Counties, Cumberland and Gloucester, 
wereerected out of the lands which had been claimed by the government of New 
Hampshne, and which had hitherto remained part of the County of Albany ; and 
Cumberland County is now, on the petition of its inhabitants, represented in Gene- 
ral Assembly. 

It is suggested that the government of New Hampshire, not satisfied with the 
final determination even of the Crown, have lately received their solicitations, and 
employed their influence to procure an alteration of jurisdiction by a cession of a 
considerable part of the late controverted territory in their favor. 

But it is conceived there are many weighty reasons which stand opposed to such 
a measure. , 

His Majesty, in privy council, after fully considering the merits of both claims 
has already-, upon the clearest evidence of ancient right, been pleased to ascertain 
the Eastern boundary of New York ; and it has the singular advant^jji of being 
distinguished and rendered obvious and unquestionable by a large river, instead of' 
a simple line of marked trees which must be substituted in case of any innova- 
tion ; and which, in jurisdictions so limited, is ever productive of public detri- 
ment in the administration of justice, and private inconvenience with respect to 
property. 

In the next place, in full confidence of the wisdom, justice, and stability of the 
decision, among others, a great number of his Majesty's military subjects, entitled 
(in reward of their services) to lands by virtue of the royal proclamation of the 7tli 
day of October, 1763, have obtained grants, under the Beal of this Colony, for a 
great part of the country upon, and to the Eastward of Lake Champlain,the Wood 
Creek, and Hudson's River. They all consider themselves as deeply interested in 
enjoying their estates under the present jurisdiction ; not only on account of the 
superior value and convenience of their lands v/hile they continue-a part of New 
York, but because, if they should be annexed to New Hampshire, a cloud will be 
raised over their titles, from an opinion which must in that case prevail, that in the 
sense of the Crown those lands never appertained to New York, and were appro- 
priated without lawful authority. 

Besides, as such an alteration Would become an inlet to uncertainty of title, 
so must it entail upon the subject endless litigation and contention, and all 
the train of evils which are iheir usual concomitants; and, in this scene of 
confusion, both the improvement, and the peace of the country, must be sacri- 
ficed. 

Again, if the inhabitants, who will be most effected, are worthy of attention, 
their wishes and prayers must prove a further obstacle to any change ; a great 
majority of those who live in the Counties of Cumberland and Gloucester, 
having earnestly implored his Majesty that they may remain under the jurisdic- 
tion of this government, which they esteem a peculiar blessing and advantage. 
Nor is their solicitude without reason ; whether we consider the constitution of 
this Colony as more immediately copied alter, and corresponding with, that of 
the parent kingdom ; or its easy and equal administration of justice ; its em- 
inent advantage for commerce or the superior value of its lands ; in each of which 
respects, it is not excelled, if rivalled, by any of his Majesty's American planta- 
tions. 

And lastly, it is conceived that no benefit can accrue to the Crown by the altera- 
tion which is sought after ; since the inhabitants of this Colony are surpassed by 
none in loyalty and attachment to our gracious sovereign, and in just and dutiful 
sentiments of government ; and since the royal revenue from the quit-rents, in- 
stead of being augmented, would be greatly diminished by restricting the ancient 
boundary of New York to enlarge New Hampshire. 

Upon the whole , there seems to be too much reason to suspect that the advocates 
for an alteration of jurisdiction, are influenced by partial and sinister motives ; or 



ArPENDIX. 54 

ihey could not, after so solemn and final an adjudication, desire what is inconvenient 
and: impolitic in itself; injurious to the just and ancient rights of New York ; and 
must not only prove hurtful to the interest of all who are possessed of property in 
that part of the Colony, but be productive of endless controversy, disquiet and 
'•onfusion. 

By order of the General Assembly, 

JOHN CRUGER, Speaker. 



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